In the early evening, Pale Male was in a tree in the Great Lawn. He flew off after something, and both birds touched in flight. I couldn’t identify the species of bird Pale Male got into a tussle with, but if I had to make an educated guess, based on its square striped tail and size relative to Pale Male, I would choose Sharp-shinned Hawk. Afterward, Pale Male was found in one of his favorite roost trees. I didn’t have a chance to see if he stayed in the tree for the evening.
Pale Male was in a favorite tree on the East Drive opposite the Met on Sunday afternoon. He was hassled by a few Blue Jays for a few minutes. After about half an hour, he then flew to what sometimes is his regular roost tree, before moving a few blocks north for the evening. He settled down, and Lola joined him for the evening in a nearby branch.
On Saturday afternoon, before I arrive Pale Male had caught and half eaten a squirrel. He was perched about 20 feet from the other half of the squirrel. Lola joined him, and instead of offering her the leftovers, he began to eat them. Lola made soft cries of protest, but he kept eating. After about ten minutes, she was feed up and flew over and took the rest of the squirrel from Pale Male.
She flew east, and Pale Male led us around the edge of the Great Lawn to his roost for the night. As I left the park, I found Lola on 1040 Fifth Avenue, where she roosted for the evening.
Pale Male and Lola are doing just fine. They’ve been enjoying the
Beresford Apartments, the Great Lawn, the Locust Grove and building on
5th Avenue this September.
Here are some pictures of Pale Male from Saturday, and the pair on the Beresford on Sunday.
Pale Male and Lola were on opposite sides of the same tree on the western edge of the Great Lawn late this afternoon. As it got later, she went west to the SE tower of the Beresford and he went east, typical for this time of year.
The first three pictures are of Pale Male and the rest are of Lola.
Before I went to visit Pale Male, I spent three hours in the North Woods looking for warblers. It was a good day for early August. I had four wood warblers, Worm-eating Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and American Redstart. I didn’t take any photographs, I just birded. It was a relaxing change.
After birding up at the north end of the park, I went down to the Met, and looked for Pale Male. Luckily, two photographers had already found him, Nabil and Lincoln. They’re much easier to spot! He was busy looking at the garden near Cleopatra’s Needle, then gave up and flew towards the great lawn. After stopping for just a few minutes, he went to the ground and caught a very small rodent.
He quickly eat the snack sized creature, “brushed his beak” on a tree limb, and was then off to the north. However, he quickly returned to his favorite fall perch and went to sleep for the night. Although the last image may look like daylight, it was already about 20 minutes past sunset.
