927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Early Wednesday Evening on 5th Avenue

I arrived a little after 6 p.m. to find that Pale Male had just come in to give Lola a break.

Lola and Pale Male
Pale Male sits on the nest.
An unknown hawk
Lola had settled onto the top edge of a building two blocks north of the nest.  The unknown hawk came and left so quickly that she did nothing.
Lola returned to the nest and Pale Male immediately left.  It was like tag team wrestling.
Pale Male taking out the trash.
I couldn’t tell what it had been.  Pale Male went up to Cedar Hill and made his way back to one of his favorite trees to roost for the evening.
Lola, who you can’t really see, all settled in for the evening.
Owls

News of Rescued Young Owls

In late February, three young screech owls were found in the northern end of Central Park.

Marie was the epicenter of all the email traffic back and forth between rescuers, parks employees, and rehabbers.  The young owls were rescued on different days, a pair on one day, and the third on a different day.

For some reason, lights, plentiful food, that the reintroduced owls came from Rehabilitation and Rescue centers, and/or other factors have resulted in owlets being born a month or two too early in Central Park.  Young Screech owls are "branchers" before they fly, and their early birth when trees are without leaves seems to lead to problems.

In case the young owls could be reunited with their parents, an effort to find the parents was launched in case it made sense to reunite the young owls with their parents.  Last year’s 75th Street owl watchers went up for a few evenings, but we didn’t find the parents and gave up looking.

On March 13th, we all got a wonderful note from Chris:

"Positive visual sighting at 9PM of one mature Eastern Screech Owl on bridle path near ballfields, where Bruce Yolton was known to take photographs last year.

It flew to a branch within 5 feet of me, perching, without fear, for a good five minutes, responding with little hooty whoops to my whinnying, then flew off.

Good birding!

Chris and Fig"

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Saturday Hawks

On Saturday, I went to see Pale Male and our 86th Street hawk.

Pale Male was in a tree off the East Drive, having a late lunch.
He then moved to a tree on the path that goes west of the Boat House.  After ten minutes, he moved north, making lots of circles to gain height.  I lost him as he moved above 79th Street.
After a stop on the Reservoir, which had gulls, geese, American Coots, American Black Ducks, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Buffleheads and an American Crow, it was off to see our 86th Street Hawk.
Two interlopers arrived.  One Red-tailed Hawk, which I didn’t photograph went west at about 96th Street.  This hawk, who may have been chasing the first hawk out of its territory, landed on the south tower of El Dorado…
Before taking off, going down Central Park South, before heading back west at around 83rd.  There are reports of four Red-tailed being seen on Riverside Drive.  I wonder if we have a pair or two, either here for the winter or who are planning on nesting on the west side?

I wouldn’t doubt that this spring, there is a new nesting pair discovered in Manhattan, either by Gracie Mansion, in Highbridge Park, or along Riverside Drive.

Our 86th Street hawk moved around a bit, but seemed undisturbed by the two visiting hawks.
She stayed in a tree near the West Drive as it got too dark to continue to photograph.
927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks, Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks, St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Saturday Marathon

I ran all around New York City on Sunday.  Although spring hasn’t officially arrived, the city’s hawks are quite busy.

First stop was 888 Seventh Avenue.  I saw both CPS Red-tailed hawks flying around 888 Seventh, but they both went past it.  I found them on 1740 Broadway.  It’s great to see them being so urban, but watching them this season is going to be tough.

Then it was off to the Cathedral Church of St. John to see how the Red-tailed Hawk pair was doing up north.  The female of the pair was checking out the nest, which looks nicely refurbished.

I went back to the nest later in the afternoon and saw the male of the pair soaring over Morningside Park.

The female Red-tail left the nest and went in the direction of the projects at 103rd, so I walked down to see if she was on the Fredrick Douglas Houses.  No luck finder her, but since the Monk Parakeets were in the neighborhood, I walked west. 

The Monk Parakeet pair was busy ripping the nest apart.  James O’Brien, who had joined me for part of the afternoon, thought it was spring cleaning, since many of the sticks lying on 103rd were full of feathers and poop.  I got a note from Rebekah Creshkoff who reports seeing a third Parakeet near the nest an hour earlier.  So, it might be possible that a second couple is moving in.  Another early spring mystery.

After lunch, I went to see the Red-headed Woodpecker at Morningside Drive and 92nd Street.  While I was there, two Red-tailed Hawks flew overhead.

Pale Male was on a 5th Avenue railing,  He made a swift dive after a pigeon, failed to catch it, and went over to his favorite security camera on the Met.

She flew off to the weather station on the American Muesum of Natural History, before flying southeast.
Pale Male appeared on the Beresford.

Next I went to see our 86th Street winter guest, who will either leave soon or stake out this area of the park for the summer.

I was going to leave the park, but Jean Dean ran into me and encouraged me to stay and watch the lunar eclipse.

The timing of the moonrise meant that we saw only about half of the eclipse.  We saw the pale red moon in full eclipse, and then saw it slowly return to full brightness.
I left before it was fully over.  I had dressed for the warm day and not the chilly night!