Tahj Holiday has been watching the San Remo Red-tailed Hawk pair build a nest in a pine tree, southwest and across the path, from the swing sets in the Pinetum. The nest is about 10 feet from the top of one of the tallest pines.
Today, I saw a hawk briefly visit, sit down in the nest and leave after a few minutes. It was the first time I had seen a hawk in the nest. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next two weeks.
Tonight, I arrived just in time to see but not photograph the male bring a small rodent to the female. She went off to eat it quickly. While she was eating the male went to the nest twice. Then they both returned to the nest, before making a trip to the top of the Ritz-Carton together. The female then returned to the nest. This all took about ten minutes.
A highly cropped photograph taken on Friday of a Snowy Owl along the Hudson River Greenway, was posted on Twitter on Saturday. I wasn’t paying attention, but a friend emailed about it late in the afternoon. I wasn’t sure I was going to go look for it, but I didn’t have wine with dinner just in case. I got a text around 8:45 letting me know the owl was found, and I jumped into a cab.
The owl ate two Brown Rats over the course of about three hours, while perched on a mound of mulch inside a fenced in compound. It ate the first Brown Rat, left with the second, but then returned with the second rat within about twenty minutes. It didn’t finish eating the second Brown Rat until after midnight.
Just like the Snowy Owl in Central Park, this owl has found a safe, protected area to eat.
When the owl was hunting, and after it flew out after the second Brown Rat, gulls left their roost on the Javits Convention Center’s green roof. About fifty gulls scattered.
On Sunday, I went at dusk and waited until 10:00 pm. The owl wasn’t seen but around 200 gulls flew up from the Javits Convention Center roof around 9:00 pm, so the owl might still be in the area.
Visits on Monday and Tuesday showed no signs of the owl, and the Javits gulls roosted peacefully each night.
I watched the Ritz-Carlton nest on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, not much happened between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
So, on Friday I visited around 4 pm. When I arrived, the male was circling ear the nest with a small rodent, which could either have been a mouse or a small rat. Somewhat comically, two Rock Pigeons were chasing him for a few minutes. He dropped the rat off, but didn’t stay on the nest. He just left.
The female then left the nest with the rodent, went three buildings to the west, and ate it. She returned to the nest within ten minutes.
(This is typical behavior. To keep the nest clean, the female will almost always eat off the nest. And I’m not surprised the male didn’t stay and incubate the eggs. I’ve seen it take a few days for an inexperienced male to understand his “duties”.)
After she returned to the nest, we found the male in a high tree in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary. The Bluejays found him and after ignoring their abuse he flew west.
Tonight, I arrived to see the female brooding on the nest. She clearly was incubating at least one egg. Unlike the previous days, she was always on top of the eggs, making contact with her brood patch, rather than sitting upright. I didn’t see the male and the female stayed on the nest the entire time I visited from about 5:30 until 7:00. Nest watching can be a bit boring at times!
The nest is at 105th and Fifth Avenue today. The female was glued to the nest, although she took a brief break off the nest for a few minutes without the male relieving her. He made a visit for about a minute. Other than that it was just watching the female incubate. There is construction near the nest, so let’s hope they do well despite it.
