Lazy Evening
My schedule only allowed me to watch the calm period before a feeding at 5th Avenue this evening. Luckily, there was a small bit of action to make the visit worthwhile.
Washington Square Opens Construction Zone 2
Today morning in Washington Square Park, a group of online hawk camera watchers and chat users met to extend their cyber life into real life.
It’s a good thing too. Once this youngster fledges, everyone will need to know each other. It’s a lot more work, but a lot more fun to track a fledgling in person. The Washington Square hawk watchers are internet savvy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this fledgling’s location is reported via twitter rather than email or phone calls.
Many of the web cam watchers were making their first visit to the nest. It was fun to watch the excitement of everyone when Bobby perched on One Fifth Avenue, or when both parents circled high above 11th Street to escort an intruder away.
The eastern portion of the park, which has been under construction is now open. I took advantage of the newly opened space to look for perches on buildings too difficult to see while the eastern section of the park was closed. My search ended up being very rewarding. I found a location where one hawk was eating and later some scaffolding where both parents were perched twenty feet apart.
Wonderful Evening
I arrived at the nest late on Saturday, to find a hawk bench full of wonderfully excited hawk watchers. The nest has eyasses again, and all of the old memories seemed to be coming back. These fond memories and some new ones from this year are making wonderful stories for tourists and locals.
Stella Hamilton has a new scope, something she promised to herself she would buy if Pale Male had kids again. Rik Davis, also had his two scopes. Between them and a huge group of “regulars”, the hawk bench became a friendly place where scores of viewers experienced the simple joy of seeing an eyass for the first time and were captivated.
This is the magic of Pale Male.
St. John’s Big Kids
I haven’t had time to go up to St. John the Divine much this season, and was shocked to see how much the three youngsters (yes, there are three) have grown. They look great. While I enjoyed the single fledgling last year, it will be great if Morningside Park has three fledglings flying around later this month.
Riverside Park Park Has Fledged
The first eyass fledged on Wednesday according to veteran hawk watchers at Riverside Park. The other eyass also appears to have fledged on Thursday. Last year the parents, continued to feed the fledglings for a week on the nest, so the youngsters continued to sleep in the nest after they fledged. This year, this no rush attitude continues. Although both birds are reported to have fledged, one was hanging out in the nest on Friday.
While there is much joy over the fledging, there is still concern over the father’s poisoning by over application of poisons south of the Boat Basin earlier this year. Although there have been positive discussions, I don’t think we’ve cracked the bureaucracy of the Parks Department yet.
Balancing hawk safety and rat control is difficult but three major areas of concern have yet to be addressed by park administrators.
- Proper sanitation is the first priority in preventing rats. If you don’t feed them, you won’t have them. The dumpster at the Boat Basin is a breeding ground for rats. It is a large dumpster designed for yard waste and not garbage and is sitting in a pile of mud most days. The rats have a field day (or should we say field night) feasting on the garbage here. The dumpster has a gate opening at the back with a two inch gap. The rats just run in and out of the dumpster all night.
While everyone acknowledges the problem and the need to build a proper waste transfer area with a compactor, the Park administrators are claiming a lack of funds. There must be enough income from the café rent to siphon off a small portion to fix this deplorable situation. If not, why isn’t this a priority for the Riverside Park Fund? - The current Parks Department policy is to restrict poisoning during the period of time starting from when eggs hatch until the fledglings disperse in the late summer. I believe the experiences both at Riverside and in Astoria Park warrant a review of this policy and an extension of the restrictions to start a month earlier when the mother begins sitting on eggs. We’ve had too many poisoning of nesting parents in city parks recently.
- A commitment from Parks to evaluate and consider banning their practice of the underground baiting of rat borrows using second generation anticoagulant poisons. I believe this practice is contrary the recommendations of the EPA, who advises the poisons always be placed within 50 feet of buildings, and in bait stations, unless used against gophers or voles in agricultural settings, where it may be used underground.
Underground baiting allows rats to ingest extremely large doses of poisons before they get sick or die resulting extremely toxic rats.
There is no proof that using baiting stations properly deployed, which are much safer for non-targeted animals, children and pets, are any less effective than loose, underground applications of poisons.
Until we get a positive commitment from Parks to address theses three areas, I don’t think we should celebrate. If you are interested in writing, here are some key contacts:
John Herrold, Park Administrator, john.herrold@parks.nyc.gov
Robert Weigel, Chairman, Riverside Park Fund, rweigel@gibsondunn.com
William T. Castro, Manhattan Parks Commissioner, william.castro@parks.nyc.gov
Quiet Zones in Central Park
In the June 2nd, New York Times there was an editorial entitled, Quiet? In New York City?. This editorial claimed that the declaration of the Bethesda Fountain area as a Quiet Zone and enforcement of this regulation, was somehow a class war between rich people and poor musicians.
Anyone who birds in the Ramble knows that last year the noise from Bethesda Fountain made birding by ear impossible during the spring and summer. I would encourage all birders to write The New York Times' Editorial Department and tell the Times that the quiet zone regulations are very sensible and are supported by those individuals who appreciate the restorative properties of the natural areas of the park.
This isn't about cracking down on a few "poor, struggling, musicians", but is about regulating the park intelligently so that it can be enjoyed by the widest number of people, some of whom enjoy the sounds of nature over the sounds of man.