Bald Eagles

During the winter, about an hour north of Manhattan on the Hudson River, you can find Bald Eagles.  On Saturday, Teatown’s Hudson River Eaglefest 2009 was held along the river.  I drove up with James O’Brien and Ben Cacace and we ended up seeing over sixty eagles!  (We might have actually seen more, but we didn’t count the eagles we saw on the west side of the river to avoid double counting.)

We birded both sides of the river from Croton-on-Hudson on the east bank, up to George’s Island and Bear Mountain and down as far as Haverstraw on the west bank.

Map
The early morning view from George’s Island Park.
The view across the river from George’s Island.
There was a nice mix of adult and juvenile eagles on the river.
If you count closely, you’ll see ten eagles out on the river.  This photo was taken about two miles south of Bear Mountain Bridge on the east side of the river.
Fishing!
More Fishing!
Eagles were not the only ones riding the ice, the Greater Cormorants were too.

Central Park Hawks After The Snow

On Sunday, I spent the late afternoon looking for Long-eared Owls without success.  But I did run into a few hawks.

On the Beresford Apartments, was Pale Male in the oval window, and Lola soaking up the sun on a south facing ledge.

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This young hawk was in the Ramble making its way between the official and the not so official bird feeders looking for customers to eat.

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This Sharp-shinned Hawk, with prey in talons, was being chased by a Red-tailed Hawk near 69th Street and the West Drive.  The Sharp-shinned Hawk evaded the Red-tail and got away with its prey.  Everything happened too fast for me to capture the action, but it reminded me that winter is the time to see lots of raptors in New York City.

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