Urban Hawks

April 9, 2010December 28, 2020General News

Urban Wildlife Appreciation Day

The Urban Park Rangers are excited about an event this Saturday and asked me to help promote it. It sounds like a lot of fun with lots of great activities for both adults and kids. It looks like the weather is going to be great too with a sunny day and a high of 62 degrees.

Urban Wildlife Appreciation Day

Fort Tryon Park, Cloister Lawn
Saturday, April 10, 2010
11:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

Getting to the park is easy. Take the A train to 190th Street and exit the station by elevator. Walk north along Margaret Corbin Drive for approximately ten minutes or transfer to the M4 bus and ride north one stop.

Get up close and personal with NYC’s wild residents. Learn about squirrels, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, eagles and more. Enjoy musical performances, live animals, and kid’s activities. Also, mounted park enforcement patrol will be there with their horses. Discover the best places in NYC and NYS to watch wildlife. With the Fort Tryon Park Trust. Ethnic food will be available for purchase.

April 5, 2010December 24, 2020Other Birds

Crazy Ducks

The Pond has been host to a male Wood Duck this winter, who must believe he’s a Mallard, since he’s claimed a female Mallard as his mate. (Children’s story anyone?)

Cross breeding between Mallards and other ducks, while not common does occur more often than you might expect. The 10,000 Birds blog has a nice piece on the subject in 2007. We’ll see later this spring if this strange pairing leads to hybrids.

April 4, 2010December 24, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Lola Returns To The Nest On Easter Evening

Lola returning to her nest on Fifth Avenue after a meal and some exercise.

March 29, 2010Central Park Coyotes

Thank You New York

It's wonderful when governmental agencies do something right. Last week, city agencies rescued a frightened coyote from Tribeca, transported it to Animal Care and Control (ACC), and quickly released it into a more wild area of New York City.

The Parks Department, Animal Care and Control, the NYPD's Emergency Service Unit, New York State's DEC and the city Health Department all worked together to ensure that this animal was treated humanly. A young female coyote that got lost in Tribeca, and could easily have been killed in traffic, was relocated to a more suitable area to continue her life.

Behind the scenes, members of these organizations had already been meeting to discuss the proper handling of coyotes in the city and had developed a protocol to handle them humanly when relocation is needed.

Now that coyotes are breeding in the Bronx, we'll have more and more encounters with them in New York City. It's not going to be perfect. Both man and coyote will have to cooperate, and occasionally, an aggressive coyote habituated to humans may have to be destroyed. But in general, with educational efforts, I think man and coyote have a good chance to leave together with minimal conflict in the Big Apple.

March 23, 2010December 24, 2020Other Birds

Great Egret On The Pond

The Central Park coyote was seen today during lunchtime walking on the eastern shore of sanctuary. I went to see I could find it after sunset, but it gave me the slip. I’ve been having bad luck since daylight savings started.

I did get to see my first Great Egret of spring at the Pond. In the video, you’ll see it preening after dark with The Plaza in the background. One of the surprises of observing birds behavior is how active diurnal birds are after dark.

March 20, 2010December 24, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Slow Afternoon at St. John the Divine

Hawk watching during nesting season can be very slow. On Saturday afternoon, I watched the St. John the Divine nest for over two hours. I only saw the female for a few minutes while she rearranged her eggs. There was no sign of her mate during the two hours.