Category: Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Christmas Bird Count

Central Park had its 107th Annual Christmas Bird Count on Sunday.  (To accommodate various greater New York locations, the counts are held on various days before and after Christmas.)

The Count is a census which records the number of each species found in the entire park.  There are seven
teams, splitting up the park into sections, Northwest, Northeast, Reservoir, Great
Lawn, Ramble, Southwest and Southeast.  The teams all start at the South Pump House, split up to do
their section’s and then meet back at the Arsenal for lunch and the tally.

The mix of birders included all skill levels, from beginners to experts.   So, if you don’t think you’re qualified for the event, don’t worry.  Join in next year, everyone is welcome.

Marie Winn giving a portion of the Ramble team its instructions.
Our first raptor was this Cooper’s Hawk.  It keep our initial numbers down at the feeders in the Ramble, which was free of birds as long as the Cooper’s Hawk was about. 
(Most of my pictures I took were of the raptors we found.  This, however, is not representative of our day.  My photographs of the day clearly reflect my fascination with raptors, not the full range of birds we saw!)
Our second raptor was a Red-tailed Hawk by the area along the Lake called the Oven.
House Finch
Two Mute Swans
This is the same Red-tailed Hawk as seen earlier.  It looks to be Pale Male, but I can’t be certain.  The morning was cold and this bird had puffed up to stay warm making it harder to make an I.D.
Downy Woodpecker
Sleepy Raccoon
Red-tailed Hawk passing overhead.
Red-tailed Hawk just outside the park on a water tower.
One last look before going to lunch.
Lunch before the tally.
New York City Park’s Commissioner, Adrian Benepe.
After the count, I went out to look for hawks in the Great Lawn area.  I found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in a tree inside the Diana Ross playground at 81st and Central Park West. 
After about twenty minutes the hawk moved about 20 feet east before moving from tree to tree about 100 feet north.
Then the hawk took off and was chased by an adult hawk up to the top of the Great Lawn.
When I caught up to them, the juvenile hawk was nowhere to be found, but Pale Male was there with a pose that said, “Youngster, this is my territory.”
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Not What I Was Looking For…

I went into Central Park on Saturday hoping to find a Cooper’s Hawk, take a few pictures of Pale Male and then go off to the Monk Parakeets on Amsterdam Avenue.

As often happens when birding, I ended up with a different set of observations.

This American Kestrel was on the Met.  I missed the Cooper’s Hawk, which I found out from other birders had spent an hour in the Tupelo tree in the Ramble.
The Reservoir had a number of ducks, including two pairs of Hooded Mergansers.
American Coot
Pied-billed Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
I then went off to 103rd and Amsterdam.  No sign of the Parakeets, who seem to have completed their nest/roost.  I suspect that they’ll be harder to spot now, since they’re going to spend more time exploring the neighborhood now that the nest is done.
Having struck out with the Parakeets, I went to the The Pool and the Loch in Central Park.  The Pool was quiet and partially frozen over.  In the Loch, I heard a group of Blue Jays.  They were aggressively after this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.  There are a number of young hawks in the city this fall.  One is in Tompkins Square Park, which someone has given a very complicated Myspace page.
Attacking Blue Jay in the lower right.
This young hawk moved from tree to tree moving west to the Pond and then up to the Great Hill.  It made a number of half hearted hunting attempts along the way.
Good luck making it through your first winter.
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Red-tailed Hawks, Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Highbridge Park, Broadway Bridge and Columbus Circle

James O’Brien (yojimbot.blogspot.com) hosted a Harlem and Washington Heights bird watching walk on Sunday.

From his 145th Street apartment, we could see this Red-tailed Hawk on an apartment building to the south, who…
…then flew southwest out of sight.
We walked through Highbridge park on the upper path.  We saw a Red-tail or two in the distance but unlike our previous trip, no Cooper’s Hawks or American Kestrels.

We then took a brief subway ride to Broadway Bridge, which is a car and subway draw bridge at the upper end of Manhattan.  The bridge is home to two Peregrine Falcons.

Just after we arrived the pair of Peregrine Falcons hassled a Red-tailed Hawk perched on top of an apartment building just east of the Marble Hill train station.  This hawk may be one of the Inwood Hill Park Red-tails.
The Red-tailed Hawk did all it could to puff up and look as big possible.
Soon the Peregrines moved out of sight to the north.
The Red-tail reappeared from the southeast before flying out of sight.  For a period of time it appeared to have a smaller bird pursuing it, possibly a Kestrel.

On my way home, I got off the 1 train at Columbus Circle and looked for the Central Park South hawks.  One of them was on a building between 8th and 9th Avenues on 58th Street.

Soon a second hawk appeared and both of them flew around Columbus Circle.
They both landed on a corner of the Time Warner building.
They flew between the Time Warner, Trump International and the new Zeckendorf buildings.
All in all, it was a great day for raptor watching.
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

More from Saturday

After taking a break in the early afternoon, and a detour to Riverside Church, I returned to the Cathedral.

The hawk watchers up at the Cathedral compared their estimates for fledge dates today.  The question of the day was, Did we have a precocious fledgling followed by a normal fledgling?, Or a regular fledgling followed by a reluctant one?  The general consensus was that we had a precocious, first fledgling.

A photograph I forgot to post from earlier in the day of the adult female being bothered by a Mockingbird.
Three Peregrines come to attack the adult female.  They were so fast, I couldn’t get a picture of all of them.
The Peregrines leave.
A fledgling on the scaffolding.  At this point, I can’t tell them apart for sure.
The fledgling disappears, and after awhile one appears on St. Luke’s.  This looks to be the new playground for the young hawks.
Still preening.
The young hawk experiments with the strong breeze.
The adult female.
Who soon leaves…
…picks up some left over prey from earlier in the day…
…and heads off to St. Luke’s
The young hawk continues to play in the wind.
It soon moves about 15 feet on St. Luke’s after having some troubles finding solid footing.
The mother returns to the Cathedral, near St. Matthew.
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

Riverside Church Peregrine Falcons

Seven blocks north and a few blocks west of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is Riverside Church.  A pair of Peregrine Falcons have two fledglings there, who on late Saturday afternoon made the worst racket imaginable begging for food.

A fledgling on Riverside Church.
Fledgling and adult in flight.
Fledgling in flight.
Fledgling in Peregrine diving mode.
Adult Peregrine preparing food for a fledgling.  It rained feathers.
The adult on the Interfaith Center, which everyone refers to as the “God Box”.
A fledgling (right) comes in to eat.
Even with food it still yells.
A little calmer after eating.