Tompkins Square Red-tailed Hawks

Amelia’s New Mate

Laura Goggin reported on her blog that Amelia, the female hawk of the Tompkins Square Park nest has a new mate. She wrote a wonderful piece that was a factual explanation of what had happened, combined with an honest expression of her sadness and loss, as well as her love for Christo for over 11 years. It was a wonderful remembrance of him.

Hawks can replace their mates in just a day or two. Sadly, this gives hawk watchers no time to grieve the loss of the previous mate.

After reading the news, I stopped by the park on my way home from Governors Island. Amelia was in a tree near the nest, and the new male came into a few trees 100 feet away from her. After about 15 minutes he went to Amelia and they copulated. Soon thereafter both of them left the park.

The video and most of the pictures are of the new male, the second to last is Amelia, and the last is a post-coital picture of the pair.

Amelia
Post-coital picture of the pair, the new male is on the left and Amelia is on the right.

Other Birds

Pine Warbler

During this week’s cold snap and snow, a Pine Warbler has been consistently showing up at the feeders in the Evodia field in Central Park. It’s a nice bright bird and very cooperative, eating mostly at either of the two suet feeders.

Other Birds

Gull Bands

There were three American Herring Gulls with bands on the Central Park Reservoir this afternoon. All the auxiliary makers, colored leg bands, appeared to be orange with black lettering, on the left leg, “below the knee”.

Update: Over the last few days, I’ve seen more banded gulls, both Ring-billed and American Herring species. Here are the ones I’ve seen so far. As I get responses back, I’ll update where and when they were banded. What has been interesting is that none of the bands have repeated, which means we’re getting lots of different gulls cycling through the reservoir on each day.

DateSpeciesBand #ColorBanding LocationBanding Date
1/24/25American Herring Gull100Black on OrangeNear Rikers Island, NYC
(40.79111 -73.88278)		6/3/15, hatched in
2014 or earlier
1/24/25American Herring GullC71Black on Orange
1/24/25American Herring GullV67 ?Black on Orange
1/25/25Ring-billed Gull6U5White on BlueNear Varennes, Québec
(45.7122; -73.4408)		6/30/16
1/25/25Ring-billed GullERYWhite on Blue
1/25/25Ring-billed GullZRPWhite on Blue
1/26/25American Herring Gull02EBlack on Orange
1/27/25American Herring Gull356Black on Orange
1/27/25Ring-billed GullU47White on BlueNear Varennes, Québec
(45.7122; -73.4408)		6/27/14
1/28/25Ring-billed Gull713White on Blue
1/29/25Ring-billed Gull59LWhite on Blue

Bird 1 – C71

Bird 2 – 100

Bird 3 – Numbers are unclear, possibly V67

Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

El Dorado Peregrine Falcons

I hadn’t seen falcons on the El Dorado this winter, so I was happy to see a pair of Peregrine Falcons there today. One was on each tower.

I first spotted one circling over the Central Park Reservoir, and watched it land on the building. But then I noticed a second falcon on the other tower.

Watching them take off and land, I could see at least one of them was banded. It’s going to be tough to read the numbers from the ground. It looked like there was both a standard band and a larger colored letter/number band.

Other Birds

Black-headed Gull

Central Park’s Reservoir has had a Black-headed Gull for the last few days. Originally found by Leo Wexler-Mann on Friday and relocated by Julius on Saturday. It is a small gull with red legs and a red to black bill. During the winter, especially as lakes and rivers freeze upstate, the reservoir has rare visitors. We should have more as the temperatures drop this week.

Owls

Great Horned Owl

I had a nice look at a Great Horned Owl today in upper Manhattan. I arrived to the sound of American Crows calling, and they led me to the correct spot. There were a few birders already there and they pointed out the tree the bird was in. I had hoped to stay for fly out, but as the sun went down I started to get too cold, even with long johns on.