Urban Hawks

December 7, 2013December 26, 2020Owls

Brooklyn Snowy Owl, 2nd Visit

I went back to Brooklyn on Saturday to look for the Snowy Owls. (There is actually more than one.) A Snowy Owl was about 35 yards from where I had seen one last weekend in Brooklyn. Nice to get additional looks at it. It flew out of the grass around the same time as last week and into the same general direction.

I would encourage everyone to look at some of the discussions on the New York State Birding listserver. Simple questions about the ethics of watching Snowy Owls and the reason they’re down south has raised more questions than answers. The discussion however is great. There have been some great tips about how to educate other birders watchers and photographers in a constructive way, in addition to some references to some current scientific literature.

December 1, 2013December 26, 2020Owls

Brooklyn Snowy Owl

A number of Snowy Owls are in the New York Area this Thaksgiving weekend. I caught up with one in Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon.

(Care needs to be given to not stress these owls. If you’re not familiar with the etiquette around how to observe owls, please take some time to research how to behave around them before you go looking for them.)

November 24, 2013December 26, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Fifth Avenue Hawks

This weekend was the first time I saw 927 Fifth Avenue nest without the scaffolding that has been up for weeks. Although there is still some scaffolding on the lower floors, it looks like most of the work has been done. The building management did a good job of protecting the nest, even with all of the cleaning work. It’s height and shape matches pictures I took this summer.

Here are pictures of the nest, Pale Male on a building a few blocks north, and the pair on the Beresford Apartments north tower.

November 10, 2013December 26, 2020General News

Bloody Skies

Lauren Hodapp at National Geographic sent me an interesting link about a piece they just published on their Daily News Blog, Bloody Skies: The Fight to Reduce Deadly Bird-Plane Collisions by Eric Uhifelder. It’s a great piece that connects well with our NJ30 banded Red-tail Hawk that was in Washington Square ealier this year.

I’m glad that our beloved hawks in Washington Square Park, are leading to a more general understanding of the risks raptors face in their daily lives. Be it secondary poisonings due to rat poisons or collision fatalities. These issues need as much publicity as possible. Thanks for the article Nat Geo!

November 3, 2013December 26, 2020Other Birds

Wood Ducks and a Northern Pintail

Fall brings back to Central Park a wide variety of ducks. Today, there was an unusual duck for the Park, a Northern Pintail, and a group of Wood Ducks among the Mallards on the northern shore of The Pool. The Pintail was trying to sleep and was hard to photograph, but the Wood Ducks were having fun being out in the open.

October 22, 2013December 26, 2020Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Bedtime At Washington Square

With westerly winds on Tuesday night, both hawks found roosts sheltered from the winds. They were about four blocks apart one east and one west of the park.