I’ve been very busy at work, so I haven’t had much of a chance to get out and hawk watch. Today, I got to see the Washington Square Park nest. As is the case with most brooding hawk nests, there wasn’t much action while I was there. Just a brief check in by the male.
My first stop on Sunday was Washington Square Park, where the pair was copulating on 1 Fifth Avenue when I arrived in the park. With the high winds, they seemed to be in no mood to move, so I went off to Tompkins Square Park.
The Tompkins Square Park nest has moved to Avenue A between 3rd and 4th Street on the north side of the avenue on a top floor air conditioner. The hawks brought twigs to the nest while I was there.
One of the joys of winter is that it brings owls to Central Park. But this year, they’ve been scarce. Luckily, at least two Long-eared Owls have been in the park this week. Finally! From my very poor pictures you can see that these owls do a good job of staying under the radar! After fly out, after a few minutes of preening, the owl quickly caught a rodent and flew off.
A young Central Park Red-tailed Hawk in the snow…
When the Hudson River is frozen upstate and ice floes form, wintering Bald Eagles ride the ice up and down the lower Hudson. With the cold weather we’ve been having, conditions are near perfect to see eagles from the Dyckman Fishing Pier in the southwest corner of Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan. Today, we saw three adults and five juveniles drift by the pier. Locals say the best times to watch are early in the morning from 8 to 10 a.m.
It was above freezing and sunny out, so the part was full of people today. Although I missed photographing the events, I did see the hawks copulate twice. For me, it takes seeing the copulation to feel like a new couple has mated, so this was great.
I followed a hawk out to Sixth Avenue, and off in the distance at the old St. Vincent’s Hospital site was a hawk on a crane. I couldn’t figure out if it was a WSP hawk, or a hawk from another pair. When the Couch’s Kingbird was around I kept seeing a pair of hawks. I wonder if we have a new pair trying to establish themselves in the northwest of the Village?
