I went to a play down in the “Alphabet” tonight, but on my way, I stopped by Washington Square Park and Tompkins Square Park. I didn’t see a Red-tailed Hawk at Washington Square Park, but saw both of the Tompkins Square Park hawks.
The female is brooding, and according to locals has been for about four days. Christo came zooming by at one point, but I couldn’t stay long enough to see an exchange. The nest is where it was last year.
Today, most of the activity was on the Trump Parc building, which in 2005 was the site of a successful Red-tailed Hawk nest. The female used a few perches for most of the afternoon, moving around on the various lighting fixtures. In the early evening, I found the male eating on a light near the female. After he was done eating, they copulated. They both flew off in the direction of The Mall, which is where I suspect they are roosting.
Michael George produced a wonderful piece for CBS Mornings, that was aired nationally today. It was a long piece about the reintroduction of Bald Eagles in New York City and featured Ranger Rob Mastrianni and rehabber Bobby Horvath. I contributed a few seconds of video to the story.
I was impressed that story of Rover’s visits to Central Park, which could have been just a brief sensationalized report, was instead a much deeper dive into why Bald Eagles are making a come back in New York City. They are returning due to the hard work of local rehabbers, and conservation employees of the city, state and national governments.
Kudos to Michael George for such a great report.
Today, I got to see lots of action from hawks building a nest on the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. When I arrived the male had just brought a rodent to the female of the pair on the very top of the hotel. They moved to the 37th Floor of the Trump Parc building and the male left leaving the female. She coughed up a casting and then ate the rodent.
While she was eating, the male when out and got a branch and brought it to the nest. I left the area and explored the park for a few hours.
When I returned, I saw the male in a low branch just inside the park at the southeast corner entrance to the park. He caught a rodent and then flew to a tree in Hallett Sanctuary where he ate. Then he returned to the same tree he had been hunting in earlier.
In NYC, mid-March is nest building and egg laying season. Today, I saw a Red-tailed Hawk visit a window ledge on the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Central Park South and Sixth Avenue. The ledge had twigs, but wasn’t a fully built nest.
This may be the same pair that build a poorly designed nest on the St. Regis where they then laid eggs and lost them last year. That pair also brought sticks to a window at the Peninsula Hotel, last year. If this is the same pair, they sure do love expensive hotel room windows!
The window is above a shield flanked by two cherubs. Pale Male and Octavia’s nest also has two cherubs.
On a warm sunny day, Pale Male and Octavia spent over an hour on their nest in the afternoon. They don’t seem to be working on refurbishing it though. So, after a failed nest two years ago, and no eggs/brooding last year, chances are they’ve entered retirement age. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. Red-tailed Hawks usually lay eggs in mid-March in NYC.
