Locust Grove Youngster
A first-year Red-tailed Hawk was eating a squirrel in the rain on Saturday in the Locust Grove of Central Park. We’ve got lots of young hawks in the park this winter.
Category: Other Red-tailed Hawks
Barred Owl vs. Immature Red-tailed Hawk
You always hear that owls and hawks don’t interact much, but a young Red-tailed Hawk didn’t get the message. It’s been harassing the Barred Owl that’s in Central Park for the past few weeks.
Tonight the Barred Owl must have had enough. The Red-tailed Hawk tried to roost in a tree the Barred Owl used to use during the day, so the Barred Owl flew out early and chased the Red-tail away.
Another Randalls Island Day
I realized on Saturday that I haven’t spend a real day birding in a long while. I’ve been going after specific birds, but not doing a real walk counting birds for a long time.
So, I birded Randalls Island from end to end on Sunday to see what I could find. Boy, did I feel rusty. Looks like I’m going to be spending lots of time this winter doing long walks…
Photographs are of the Red-tailed Hawk pair and their nest just north of the stadium field, an American Kestrel, Brant, Black-capped Chickadee, and Red-breasted Mergansers.
Last weekend
I haven’t been able to spend much time birding this December. During the week, it’s too dark to bird after work, and the weekend before last, I was away on business.
This last weekend, I only had a few hours on Saturday to go birding. Sunday, I participated in the Christmas Bird count in Central Park, but didn’t have time to photograph much.
So, here are the few photos I got last weekend.
Hawk in Madison Square
I was taking pictures of the Flatiron Building in New York City, when I saw a hawk fly in and land on what used to be the northern Toy Center building, which is undergoing renovation. It landed and returned south. It was dark, so I couldn’t get a good enough I.D. to figure out if it was one of the Washington Square hawks, the hawk that had been seen hanging around the park, or just a migrating hawk.
Astoria Park
I took a visit to Queens to check out a nest on the Triborough (RFK) Bridge. It’s been on the bridge for some time, although one year the nest was on the opposite side of the bridge. Like so many nests in New York City, it had a parent die from poisoning.
Astoria is a nice quiet neighborhood full of friendly people. Sometimes I get burnt out answering scores of questions from hawk watchers in Manhattan, and Astoria makes a wonderfully relaxed trip. The nest is near the next to the last stop of the N train, which is a quick trip from where I live in Manhattan.
This year the nest has three eyasses, which seem to be about a month old.
