A two hour drive from New York City is the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR, an old airstrip that is now a National Wildlife Refuge. This time of year it is home to a number of Short-Eared Owls that appear about an hour before sunset.
Tonight, I saw six. It was a life bird for me!
(The refuge is currently closed to pedestrians, as they are reseeding. The pictures are a little blurry due to the distance they were taken from.)
The hawks stayed high above Washington Square this Sunday afternoon. Perches included One Fifth Avenue, the cross on the church, flagpoles and balconies. They must have eaten earlier because neither bird seemed interested in hunting.
Saturday was full of activity with both hawks being seen for most of the afternoon.
Rosie hunted and caught a small rodent at 3rd and LaGuardia. This area is heavily baited with rat poison, so it isn’t the best spot for her to hunt. (There is speculation in the scientific community, that in addition to secondary poisoning of hawks from rat poison, it may led to infertility. I have wondered if the failure of two out of the three eggs last year might have been an issue with rodenticides,)
I didn’t witness any copulation, but both hawks visited the nest on Saturday.
Late this afternoon, Rosie shared here leftovers with Bobby on the southeast corner of the Washington Square Arch. The rat must have been huge, since the leftovers were a meal in themselves.
After the meal was over there were some wonderful flights including a stop over by both of them on One Fifth. They were out of view, so it was unclear if they copulated. One or possibly two Peregrine Falcons appeared and the hawks split up to defend the park.
The only Washington Square hawk I saw to day was Rosie. She was watching Rock Pigeons get fed when I first saw her and then she made a number of wide sweeps a few blocks north and east of the park. It’s going to take finding someone in One Fifth or the East Brevoort with an eastern view to help us figure out where she’s going. For now it’s a mystery where she’s going when she goes Northeast out of the park.
The area around Rosie’s right eye is slightly different than her left. I don’t know the cause but you can see the area below her right eye is different than one would expect. It’s been like this since we first saw her in December.
I arrived in the late afternoon to find both hawks high above the park. The were on the radar dishes to the east, the balconies of 2 Fifth Avenue on the north, and the nest and cross on the south of the park.
The hawks both flew far to the east at the time they would normally roost. Rosie disappeared as she usually does, and Bobbie returned west to a familiar roost location.
