Central Park Hawks

Today was a nice day in Central Park.  I had the two Red-tailed hawks trying to establish a nest on CPW, (now working on a nest on 322 CPW.)  Then a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on the American Museum of Natural History followed by Sharp-shinned Hawk in the Evodia Field. 

My next stop was Fifth Avenue, where Octavia is now brooding.  Pale Male was tending to the nest (rearranging twigs as is his habit) and she returned to the nest.

A quick walk down to Central Park South uncovered one Red-tailed hawk there. Seven hawks, not too bad for a brief afternoon visit to the park.

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Saturday at Fifth Avenue

For 2013, I’ve wanted to spend time doing general bird watching rather than just hawk watching and have been birding Central Park, Inwood Hill, Fort Tryon, Battery Park and Randalls Island the last few weeks.  My total for New York County is now 65 species, so I’m off to a good start for the year.

Despite my refocusing, I have spent some time at hawk nests.  On Saturday, it was Pale Male and his new mate’s nest.

I saw them copulate, visit the nest together and saw Pale Male bring her a gift of a pigeon.  The cold weather caused me to miss some of the action with my camera, but I was too busy trying to keep warm.

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Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve day was quiet in the park.  I saw Pale Male on the Beresford Apartments and at least one other Red-tail who was keeping track of the Barred Owl.  (This Red-tail went over to Teddy Roosevelt Park outside Central Park before returning.)

The Barred Owl was very cooperative tonight and was easy to track for about fifteen minutes after the fly out.  

Happy Holidays!

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