Central Park Owls
Amazingly, I’ve still been able to keep up with our three Eastern Screech-Owl fledglings in the North Woods. They’re starting to look more and more like adults each day.
Tuesday, 6-17-08
All three kids accounted for this evening. They have taken to dropping straight down to the low bushes to avoid the robins at fly out. There is a Wood Thrush nest next to the owls roost with aggressive parents as well.
I didn’t see the parents, but it doesn’t seem to matter. The fledglings are starting to look very grown up! They’re starting to get vertical stripes in the front.
Divine Kids Fledge Safely
I was in Connecticut when all the action happened. Stella Hamilton reports that this afternoon around 4:45 and then again at 5:30 p.m., fledges occurred at St. John the Divine. This empties the nest.
When I arrived late in the evening, one fledgling was high in a London Plane tree on the east side of Morningside Drive and the other was in a low branch in a tree 150 feet into the Morningside Park.
Perspective
When I started hawk watching a few years ago, I was disappointed by the poor quality of the information about hawks in the city. While almost everyone was focused on the famous pair of Red-tailed Hawks on 5th Avenue, it was apparent that there was a wide selection of raptor species and nest locations in the city.
It became clear to me that the highly anthropomorphized reporting on blogs and in the media was not bringing to light the true picture of the state of raptors in the city. Pale Male’s incredible consistency, producing young year after year, had created a distorted view of the reality of New York City’s raptor population.
Because of this, I started blogging. Along with many other individuals, I feel that we have begun to help turn the tide and are starting to have people look at the science of urban hawks rather than just follow them like creatures in the zoo or treat them as if they were pets.
The phenomena of urban hawks is fairly new. It is not conforming to established patterns and is making us think about new issues. There are lots of gray areas with regard to conservation and a need for the urban hawk watching community to identify and then recommend areas for change. There are many unanswered questions:
- How to support rehabilitators in the city who depend on contributions from the public to support birds in need of care?
- How to support birds who nest in awkward locations and areas? When is a nest location too urban, and intervention is needed to protect the fledglings?
- How to revise Animal Control policies, so fledglings are given a chance to establish themselves before being removed from urban locations?
- How to educate the public, so that hawks are not harassed, stolen, injured or killed?
- How to prevent secondary deaths from poisons?
This year, we’ve had an unusually large number of Red-tailed Hawk nesting problems in New York City. A few pairs did not have successful hatchings, we’ve had at least seven eyasses die, and at least one fledgling die. We’ve also had the largest number of nesting pairs in the city’s recent history. As, we have more pairs, the accidents will only continue to rise.
Let’s be careful to take our disappointment about these nest failures, and not turn to anger, but let this disappointment motivate us to work harder with, and for, local organizations to promote urban hawk safety and to provide support for vets and rehabilitators who volunteer their time to assist these wonderful birds.
Friday The Thirteenth
The final Houston Street fledge occurred on Friday the thirteenth. It started out with a mid-afternoon fledge, followed by the usual struggle to find the fledgling, who ended up being just across Houston street. The young fledgling was doing well hopping from branch to branch.
In the early evening, the parents arrived with the father quickly leaving. The mother then took a rodent and flew back and forth along the top of the school, stopping on drain pipes and air conditioners to attract the fledgling back to the school. The fledgling soon took the hint to come north back to the school flying over Houston Street.
The fledgling crossed the road, but couldn’t gain any height nor could it find a landing spot on the school. It tired to grab the corner of the building but it ended up gliding into the street. Luckily, we had two quick thinking hawk watchers at the site. Edwin who stopped traffic and Adam who picked up the bird.
Then it got difficult. A crowd had formed and followed Adam Welz, who had picked up the hawk. Luckily, Adam has experience with raptors where he lives in South Africa.
He needed a safe space to release the hawk, but people were crowding him and touching the hawk upsetting it. He couldn’t release it on the ground, and had nowhere to put it. As I went to get a cardboard box, a housing authority policeman came and took the hawk away in an animal carrier.
This nest is surely at a difficult site. Let’s hope the policeman took the hawk to a proper facility and it gets to a rehabilitator, who can return it to the site.
As dusk fell, the mother stayed on a lamp post looking for her fledgling until it got dark, and she roosted in a nearby tree for the evening.
Update: The bird is safely with its siblings, in Bobby Horvath’s care.
Thursday, 6-12-08
Tonight, the young owls were active early and spent about ten minutes by the stream after fly out. Then they gave me the slip! They’re getting older!
