Pale Male and Lola are doing just fine. They’ve been enjoying the
Beresford Apartments, the Great Lawn, the Locust Grove and building on
5th Avenue this September.
Here are some pictures of Pale Male from Saturday, and the pair on the Beresford on Sunday.
The “Upper Lobe” of The Lake in Central Park has been renovated over the last year, and most of the work has been completed except for a replacement bridge, which is experiencing an engineering delay.
When I first saw the new immature plantings, I missed the old over grown brush and trees. I was afraid birds would never return. My fears, however have been short lived, as many birds are greatly enjoying the new native plantings. Except for a shortage of march grasses which attracted Red-winged Blackbirds and the now empty Green Heron nest, the area is much improved. It also has much safer landscaping, discouraging the nude sunbathing and sexual activity that was once rampant in the area.
On Saturday, the area attracted a number of birds, including this Hummingbird.
I got an email on Saturday, that two hawks had been found dead at Astoria Park. Excellent follow up by the Urban Park Rangers in Queens discovered two dead chickens rather than hawks. Dead chickens have been a problem in the park this summer, most likely from Santería animal sacrifices. While I’m relieved that the hawks are in good health, I do feel some sadness about the chickens.
Here are pictures of the Astoria hawks. Two from last weekend and three from this Sunday.
Both the East and the West Ponds out at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge were very high after the rain on Saturday. A Red-necked Phalarope was at the south end of the East Pond. It was a life bird for me.
I missed by a half hour, two Bald Eagles, who had flown over the pond before I arrived. Win some, lose some!
The juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, who spends its time in the North Woods and the Great Hill (and most likely is one of the St. John the Divine offspring) was hunting in The Loch on Saturday afternoon.
It has shocked me that no one seems to be interested in this youngster. Lots of people complain about how much they miss watching the offspring of Pale Male and Lola. But, here’s a wonderful juvenile bird only twenty five blocks north of Pale Male and Lola’s nest and no one is watching it.
The most common warbler, I was missing from my Central Park list was a Cape May Warbler. Luckily, there were a number of them on Saturday near Sparrow Rock (or is it Sparrow Ridge?, the area west of the Locust Grove and east of Tanner’s Spring)
In any case, this just leaves me with a Blackburnian, Cerulean, Golden-winged, Kentucky and Worm-eating missing from my list. (I’ve seen a Worm-eating Warbler about five times, but have never captured a photograph.)
