North Face of the North Tower of the Beresford Apartments

The San Remo pair have been spending a great deal of time on the towers of the Beresford Apartments at 81st and Central Park West this fall. The female has been using a window, I don’t normally see her in. The oval “window”, which is actually bricked on this side, on the north face of the north tower. This is a perch, in past years I failed to monitor. She has also been perching on a ledge on the northeast corner of the tower. So, it’s worth keeping an eye on this side of the tower, if you’re at Sparrow Rock or coming south from the reservoir on the west side.

Spring Is Coming

Some updates:

  • The Peregrine Falcons at 86th and West End look to be doing fine. The male hunted for the female this afternoon, and they made an exchange of food above the Broad Nosh Bagel shop on Broadway. She ate the prey on the church tower ledge. I read her band number and it is 77/BV, so she’s the same female as previously. She is from Du Bois Library, at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where she hatched and was banded in 2019.
  • The El Dorado Peregrine Falcon pair have been seen often. Where they have a scrape is unknown. Keep an eye and ear out for where it might be.
  • The Peregrine Falcons at Riverside Church are back after a year off for construction.
  • The Red-tailed Hawk pair, with a new nest in the Wild West Playground in Central Park at 93rd, just off Central Park West, has the female sitting on the nest. Female hawks sometimes sit on their nests a few days before they lay eggs, so we’ll have to watch some more to figure out what’s going on. Anyone with an apartment higher than the nest may have a great view.
  • The San Remo pair are back to building a nest high up on the towers again. And a raccoon is still using their old nest to sleep in.
  • Octavia has been seen often along Fifth Avenue around 77th Street in the afternoon, on window she and Pale Male used to share.

Pinetum Red-tailed Hawk Nest

I wasn’t able to photograph the activity at the nest, but was able to watch the San Remo/Pinetum pair copulate on The Beresford, and bring nesting material to the nest on Monday afternoon. It looks like they are on track to nest again. It’s good news as folks had seen a raccoon sleeping in the nest a few months ago and there was some tentative nest building on the San Remo in January.

The open question is what is happening in the north end of the park. I saw two Red-tails over The Pool engaged in a courtship flight, but haven’t seen where they are nesting. Hopefully, the North End Birders will find it.

Update: I just heard from John Baisley, an Urban Park Ranger, that the Terrence Cardinal Cooke pair has moved their nest two blocks south to the southern end of the Museum of the City of New York building.

Playing In The Playground

When I arrived a playful Red-tailed Hawk fledgling from the Pinetum nest was making lots of hunting attempts in Seneca Village before moving up to Summit Rock, and then moving on to the Diana Ross playground. It ate a Brown Rat and was joined by the other fledgling. Both of them entertained the children in the playground stopping on a little roof and a park bench. The two of them were next to each other for a brief time and both look great.