Urban Hawks

I got lots of letters about my corrections to John Blakeman's F.A.Q. for the Washington Square nest.  Those supporting my position outweighed those against by about twenty to one.

One of the most interesting letters talked about how John had trained the chat room to only use technical terms while discussing hawks.  What's interesting is how the chat room uses these terms like a cult, insisting everyone use them.

In real life, not chat room life, many of the terms John Blakeman has taught are rarely, if ever used.  Even in scientific discussions many of these terms are not enforced.  Using tiercel rather than male is rare for example, but like a cult many in the chat room insist on using this term.  Those who don't use tiercel are thought of as being ignorant.

But what really bothers me is the use of an archaic term from the middle ages for a female hawk, formel.  This term hasn't been used for centuries, except by John Blakeman and his followers.

Google formel and you won't find anything about hawks for pages.  Google formel and hawk, and you will only find it where John Blakeman has been. 

Here is the modern etymology of the word, formel.

• The term is listed as obsolete in the O.E.D, with the last quotation from the 17th century. 
• On February 28th, 2008 John Blakeman declares there is no word for a female hawk like tiercel.  To quote from a letter he wrote to Marie Winn's which she posted on her blog, "Sadly, for the Red-tail and other similar hawks that were never used in classical falconry, there is no really fine, deliberate designation of a female. A good number of falconers and raptor biologists label a female Red-tail as a "hen." For me, that's a term that should be reserved for real hens, female adult chickens and other closely related species. For me, "hen" is not properly serious enough to be used for a female Red-tail. To me, they are never so diminutive as to be called a mere "hen.""
• The next day, a librarian, Chris Karatnytsky writes Marie that there is a term for a female hawk used in Chaucer's allegorical dream poem, Parlement of Foules.
• John Blakeman begins using this term when writing to Marie Winn and then uses it with chat users both at the Franklin Institute and Washington Square nests.
• To this day, revival of the term formel escapes the notice of ornithologists world wide.

While most of us expected the Washington Square fledgling to be coming into the park soon that didn’tt happen today.  Instead, it was a block further east, on top of a building using some scaffolding as a jungle gym.  I wonder if this behavior takes the place of branching, for birds born on a building rather than a tree nest?

The fledgling was harassed by an American Kestrel and later the adult female came in to check on her.   The mother then roosted for the night on a fire escape a block even further east.

I only stayed until 9:10, but it looked like the fledgling was going to roost at the top of the building.

The Washington Square fledgling has chosen a secluded spot atop rooftops on a set of low N.Y.U buildings to spend its first few days off the nest.  It seems like a perfect spot to get used to living off the nest.

At the Trump Parc nest, it took one of the fledglings a week to enter Central Park from its building perches on Central Park South and 58th Streets.  The Washington Square fledgling also doesn’t seem to be in a rush.  It’s parents also don’t seem to be in a rush as they continue to feed the fledgling on the roofs.

I’ll be on vacations for the first two weeks of July, so if you’re depending on me for Washington Square news, I would advise finding alternative sources!

Sunday afternoon, I watched for hours and only got a one minute glimpse of the fledgling after 5 p.m.  Watching in real life, rather than on a webcam takes a lot more effort!

A late afternoon snack of Rock Pigeon for the fledgling at Washington Square.  Hawk watchers saw a feeding earlier in the day, as well.  All seems to be going well and I would suspect we will have the fledgling in the park in a few days.