Bats and a Red-tailed Hawk

I stopped by Central Park’s Pond on my way home.  The Pond is located just north of the Plaza Hotel at the south east end of the park.  The usual suspects were there, including a Wood Duck, a Black-crowned Night Heron, Mallards and Canada Geese, plus the hundreds of Common Grackles coming home to roost in the trees surrounding the Pulitzer Fountain of Grand Army Plaza.

What I didn’t expect to find were two Eastern-Red Bats feeding at around 6 p.m.  Usually, I need to rely on my Echo Meter Touch to identify my bats, but these were clearly Eastern-Red Bats just by watching them.  I did my best to get some pictures without flash in the low light.

After sunset, a Red-tailed Hawk flew around the Pond and the buildings on Central Park South.  I suspect one of the adults we saw bringing nesting materials to Crown Building earlier this year.  These hawks continue to be a mystery, but it was good to see they’re still around.

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Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Two Adult Red-Tailed Hawks

I started my raptor watching in the North Woods and then worked my way around the reservoir.  My first raptor was a Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk at the Wildflower meadow, who then flew around the Compost Heap.  Then it was off to the reservoir, where a Peregrine Falcon has been seen for the last few days near the North Gate House. Then after looking at the nice selection of waterfowl using the open areas of reservoir, I ran into two adult hawks at the South Gate House.  By then it was too dark to I.D. the hawks, but it looked like one of them was an intruder and the other was either Pale Male or Octavia.

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