Cassin’s Kingbird, Continues at Floyd Bennett Field
The Cassin’s Kingbird, continued to be visible at Floyd Bennett Field on Sunday. I couldn’t resist going out to Brooklyn to continue studying this bird’s behavior.
Cassin’s Kingbird at Floyd Bennett Field, Brooklyn
Last Saturday, Kai Sheffield found a Cassin’s Kingbird out at Floyd Bennett Field. Scores of birders tried to find it last Sunday. So, it was great to see a tweet from Rob Jett that the bird had been refound in the Community Gardens of Floyd Bennett Field this Saturday.
When I got out to Floyd Bennett Field there were about 35 birders looking for the bird. Almost all of them got great view of the rare bird found normaly in the southwest of the United States.
Late Afternoon Hunting, Eating and Roosting
This time of year, it’s common to see one of the adults hunting at dusk, eat their bedtime snack and then go of to roost. Tonight this happened just as expected.
The rats come out just before dusk making hunting easy for the Red-tailed Hawk. Unfortunately, local squirrel lovers grossly overfeed the squirrels in this area and end up supporting a large rat colony.
Uptown and Downtown
I’ve been spending time recently doing some old fashioned bird watching without a camera and having a great time. But I thought it would be fun to look for hawks on Saturday afternoon. I only found two, one on El Dorado’s south tower on Central Park West and one in Washington Square Park.
Tompkins Square Couple
As the days get shorter, our local hawks are spending more time closer to home and more time together. Tonight both of the Tompkins Square Red-tailed Hawks were in nearby trees for about a half hour.
(Once daylight saving time ends, I’ll be unable to go hawk watching after work. So this is most likely my last weekday report until Spring.)
Beresford Hawks on Saturday and Sunday
On Saturday afternoon, two hawks spent at least an hour circling around Central Park West north of 80th Street. Then one landed on the roof of the Beresford Apartments’ SE Tower, while the other landed on the SW Tower. It wasn’t clear if it was Octavia and Pale Male or another pair of hawks. They certainly were not in the standard perches.
However, on Sunday afternoon, it was clear Pale Male was in the oval window of the SE Tower, and Octavia was perched just below the oval window of the NE Tower.
Had I just misidentified the hawks on Saturday, or was Pale Male protecting the building after interlopers landed on the building the day before?
