Following Bobby
Today, I spent most of my time in Washington Square following the male hawk, Bobby. He was very cooperative in the late afternoon and was easy to keep track of.
Cold and Windy Afternoon In Washington Square
The new female in Washington Square, whose nickname is Rosie, was very active this afternoon, while Bobby mostly watched from a London Plane tree. Rosie is like so many young Red-tails. She flies around going after anything she sees in the park before she settles down and makes a good kill.
Bobby, being older, has already learned to relax and take his time while hunting. He caught a rodent, just after sunset, with only a patient ten minute wait on a branch.
Besides both of them hunting this afternoon. Rosie brought a branch to the nest and Bobby joined her, but was harassed and nearly hit by a Peregrine Falcon. (For those who are worried about the Peregrines, we saw this behavior for years at St. John the Divine. Although it was a hassle for the Red-tails, nothing every happened to them.)
My First 2012 Visit To Washington Square
I arrived in the park around 3:30 p.m. to find the new girl eating a rat on a tree in the fenced in SW portion of the park. She eat about half of the rodent, and then flew around the park and to the north of the park up past Eighth Street. She soon returned and made a brief visit to the nest.
Bobby appeared and the new girl tried out perches on a number of air conditioners on buildings on the west side of the park. But at dusk we lost track of them, and didn’t find them in any of the known roost sites.
Happy New Year
Happy New Year.
Please be happy hawk watchers!
Hawk watching is great fun but recently there has been a lot of negativity on some hawk watching blogs and chat rooms in New York City. I usually let these things go, but these spats are distracting us from the real raptor issues in New York City — protecting nest sites, limiting rodenticide usage and supporting local rehabbers.
New York has real issues right now. For example, in Riverside Park the local community is putting pressure on park management to greatly increase rodenticide usage in the park. The park’s management would like to control the rodents while protecting the hawks by focusing on improving sanitation rather than putting out poisons. However it doesn’t have funding to replace its wire trash cans throughout the park with rodent resistant models. Believe it or not, replacing the trash cans would cost over $100,000!
Is the hawk watching community doing anything to support Riverside Park management? A few are writing letters of support, but that’s about it. Instead bloggers and chat room users are arguing about hawk names, tree management policies, bird banding, false I.D.s and making provocative statements.
Please don’t squabble over issues that don’t matter. It’s more than a waste of time and energy. It prevents us from addressing the real issues and reduces our credibility as a lobbying group.
Over the last few months these false issues have included:
- What hawk watcher should call the new female at Washington Square. It doesn’t matter! Wild animals don’t have names. We’re just giving them nick names so we can talk about them. If one person uses one name and someone else uses another, who cares?
Better yet, why doesn’t someone take a leadership role and auction off rights to name her? Maybe an individual or a chat room could raise some money for the trash cans in Riverside Park!
- Attacks on banding. Bands have been placed on birds for decades, and have provided important information to scientists helping conservation efforts. The issue with Violet’s band is still unclear. It was an isolated issue that could easily have been a complication due to an injury rather than the placement of a band that was too small. There is no reason to personally attack regulators of bird banding. It just poisons any possible partnership that might be needed in the future.
- Central Park staff have been attacked for removing trees after three large storms. Central Park has bedrock very close to ground level. It creates situations where 100 year old trees may only have roots 8 feet deep. This problem requires the park to remove trees which look healthy, but have become a risk to human life.
There is no hidden agenda needing a FOIL request. This is appropriate tree management, which at times can include removing older trees, and replanting. - False I.D.s. Over the last few months, bloggers who live outside of New York City, have been looking at photographs and saying things like “Oh, that hawk in Washington Square looks like that hawk in Tompkins Square Park.” This might increase blog traffic, but it just confuses people, and frustrates those that watch the hawks in person.
So, if you care about hawks, please keep to the real issues which primarily are protecting nest sites, limiting rodenticide usage and supporting local rehabbers!
Violet Passes Away
I'm in Mexico on vacation, but I wanted to report the sad news that Violet, the Red-tailed Hawk female of Washington Square passed away after surgery on her leg.
More information can be found on the Roger Paw blog. Violet will be missed by the many hawk watcher of Washington Square.
New Girl In Town
As often happens with hawks, a new female has quickly appeared and staked claim to both Bobby and Washington Square Park. There’s no sign they’ve mated yet, but Bobby is certainly tolerating her being in his territory.
She was very energetic this afternoon, flying high and low, exploring the park’s perches and hunting grounds. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months. Certainly the ups and downs of Pale Male choosing a new mate last year, should caution us not to say this is definetly the next mate. A lot can happen between now and March.
