A hawk was on the Beresford Apartments tonight, just like last night. I’m feeling this bird wasn’t Pale Male, but still can’t be sure. At this point, it’s a mystery for me. The bird stayed on top of the north tower until 7:30 p.m., then went to the west tower before diving down quickly off the tower. A possibility is that I’m seeing the male, but just haven’t found the now brooding female.
I’ve received reports from three different people that a pair of hawks was building a nest on the Bersesford Apartments. I went last night and saw a single hawk, which could have been Pale Male on top of the building.
So, right now I’m confused about what’s going on. Either the hawks started to build the nest and Pale Male chased them away or one of the new hawks has similar markings to Pale Male. This is going to take some return visits to figure out.
After posting my scorecard for the year, I got an email that hawks were again being spotted on the El Dorado with nesting materials. I spotted one Red-tail on the El Dorado this evening, but didn’t see its mate. Hopefully this year will turn out better than last year when construction workers destroyed the nest just as the female was laying eggs.
Sunday was as warm as Saturday, making it enjoyable to walk around Central Park. I started up north, and saw a Brown Trasher by the Pool, my 57th bird in Manhattan for the year.
While in the Conservancy Garden, I saw a Red-tail perch on the roofs of the Cardinal Cooke Heath Care Center and El Museo del Barrio.
Then after a walk to the middle of the park, I had two Long-eared Owls. A nice relaxing afternoon on Superbowl Sunday.
My New Year’s resolution is to do a little more birding and a little less photography during the non-nesting/fledgling period for hawks. (Basically the months outside of April, May, June and July.)
So today, I just went for a long walk around Central Park today with my scope and took an occasional digiscoping picture. My bird count 39 species. The highlight was seeing two Baltimore Orioles.
| Count | Species | |
| 81 | Canada Goose | |
| 2 | Wood Duck | |
| 41 | Mallard | |
| 1 | American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid) | |
| 37 | Northern Shoveler | |
| 1 | Ring-necked Duck | |
| 8 | Bufflehead | |
| 9 | Hooded Merganser | |
| 10 | Ruddy Duck | |
| 4 | Pied-billed Grebe | |
| 1 | Sharp-shinned Hawk | |
| 1 | Cooper’s Hawk | |
| 3 | Red-tailed Hawk | |
| 5 | American Coot | |
| 18 | Ring-billed Gull | |
| 6 | Great Black-backed Gull | |
| 23 | Rock Pigeon | |
| 1 | Mourning Dove | |
| 1 | Red-bellied Woodpecker | |
| 2 | Downy Woodpecker | |
| 1 | Hairy Woodpecker | |
| 11 | Blue Jay | |
| 1 | American Crow | |
| 2 | Black-capped Chickadee | |
| 2 | White-breasted Nuthatch | |
| 1 | Brown Creeper | |
| 1 | Carolina Wren | |
| 2 | American Robin | |
| 1 | Northern Mockingbird | |
| 4 | European Starling | |
| 1 | Song Sparrow | |
| 28 | White-throated Sparrow | |
| 8 | Dark-eyed Junco | |
| 2 | Northern Cardinal | |
| 1 | Red-winged Blackbird | |
| 6 |
Common Grackle | |
| 2 | Baltimore Oriole | |
| 11 | House Finch | |
| 8 | American Goldfinch | |
| 23 | House Sparrow |
I finally caught up with NJ 30, the banded hawk which may have been one of the juveniles from the Washington Square nest, in Battery Park today. It was great to see the hawk.
After loosing track of it, but finding the park’s Wild Turkey and an American Kestrel, I saw two Red-tailed hawks high in the sky. It was hard to tell if they were friend or foe and I couldn’t tell if one of the hawks was NJ30. But it was good to see that the area had more than just one Red-tail.
