I walked down from my office to find a hawk on the west of the park and one on the nest. Fairly quickly the hawk on the west joined the hawk on the nest. After about a minute, a hawk left the nest. I couldn’t tell if it was exchange of hawks, or just a visit by Bobby before nightfall.
There is a moment when watching a nest early in the year when you feel everything is in order. Copulation, Check, Overnighting on the Nest, Check, Staying on the Nest, Check. Then, you just relax and just know eggs will be coming soon.
Today, I had that feeling in Washington Square.
After a week of sensational stories about the death of Lima, comes a refreshingly balanced article and interview about the rehabilitators, Bobby and Cathy Horvath. Thank you, Esther Zuckerman and The Village Voice.
I got to Washington Square very late, as I has spent most of the afternoon on Fifth Avenue. Bobby and Rosie were on the cross and then while Rosie did some hunting, Bobby visited the nest. After dusk, Rosie caught a rat and eat it while a crowd of about fifty watched.
As night fell, Rosie went to the nest to roost. Female hawks start roosting on the nest for awhile, then spend a few days on the nest during the day, and then lay eggs. The overnight roost on the nest is a very good sign that eggs will be arriving soon.
Today, Pale Male and his new mate acted as though they had know each other for weeks rather less than a week. After seeing how quickly she adjusted to the new surroundings, one wonders how many other nests have new partners without any one noticing.
There were nest visits, copulation and the kind of activity you would expect as spring approaches.
One doesn’t have to have the necropsy results for Lima, to realize that we have a problem with jurisdiction over construction companies and vendors within city parks. While most park managers have limited or eliminated rodenticides around hawk nests, there seems to be no oversight over construction companies and vendors in New York City parks. Over the last few years we’ve seen issues with prophylactic placement of rodenticides at construction sites at both the Met and the Police Station, and with restaurants putting out poisons within city parks. There has got to be some way to require outside companies working on park property to get approval whenever they plan to put out rodenticides.
I got to see the new hawk that has come into Pale Male’s territory after Lima’s death. She was on the Oreo building when I arrivered, did a large circle that when up and down 5th Avenue and over Cedar Hill. When she returned to perch on the Woody building, she had a pigeon. It was unclear if it came from Pale Male or if she caught it on her own. While I was there from about 5-6 p.m., I didn’t see Pale Male.
