The female Red-tailed Hawk of the Ritz-Carton pair spent the afternoon on the nest. The male visited twice while I was watching. She doesn’t seen to have laid eggs yet, but looks to be getting ready.
She can hide out of view on the nest, or can only be seen from the west or the east. She may have been on the nest on Thursday and Friday, when I couldn’t find her.
The Barred Owl that was in the park on Friday, continued use the same roost on Saturday. It was spotted catching and eating a Brown Rat on Friday night. I’m very concerned about the quality of prey in the park. I counted at least 10 rodent bait boxes in the park. While these could have snare traps, they most likely contain rodenticides. If this owl stays in the park, it will only be a few weeks before it is poisoned.
I went by around noon today, and didn’t see the hawks but returned around 4 pm. I thought I had struck out, but after about twenty minutes, the male appeared. He circled around the nest with a twig, but got more interested in scaring up all the pigeons that feed on the horse feed just inside the park at Sixth Avenue.
He ended up perching in Hallett Nature Sanctuary for about ten minutes before leaving. I caught up with him again as he went to the nest.
I’m a bit confused about what’s going on as I had been seeing the female near the nest each day. I haven’t seen her in the last two day. I don’t think she’s on the nest yet, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.
In the northeast corner of Bryant Park, a Barred Owl roosted today. It certainly isn’t the safest place for an owl with lots of cars and people, but it certainly has lots of prey. But the park also has a lot of bait boxes. These can hold rodenticides or snare traps. If they have rodenticides, there might be a problem with the prey.
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.
