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.)
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?
I got a very, very brief look at Octavia at the base of Cedar Hill on Sunday. I’ve been having trouble figuring out her habits, so it was nice to find her.
Last Monday, I caught up with the adult female of Tompkins Square Park in the late afternoon. She’s much easier to find now that her kids are gone. These hawks are multi-denominational. They love to perch on the crosses of three different churches in the neighborhood.
In the late summer, the adult male was the most frequent visitor to Tompkins Square park. The female was much harder to find.
As fall has arrived, both hawks are spending more time together in the park. On Saturday afternoon, they spent about 30 minutes together in a Gingko tree on the east side of the park.
I spent Saturday bird watching rather than hawk watching and like earlier in the week got mesmerized by Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
