Marathon Sunday

By D. Bruce Yolton927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Other Red-tailed Hawks

On Marathon Sunday, I came into a park full of runners.  The marathon route goes right through Pale Male and Lola’s territory.

I walked around the Great Lawn and saw a hawk skim just above ground level from the center of the lawn to the eastern edge.  The hawk grabbed a small bird and then jumped into a low branch of a small tree between two baseball diamonds.  The bird was the immature hawk that Lola has been tolerating and to some observers, has even been playing with.

The immature Red-tailed Hawk just after catching a bird on the east side of the Great Lawn.
Note the immature’s stripped tail rather than a mature’s solid red tail.
The immature also has a very light eye color, which will darken over time.
Just after the immature Red-tailed Hawk finished eating, Pale Male came in to chase it away.
Pale Male landed in a tree on the west side of the Great Lawn and the immature hawk went northwest out of sight.
Pale Male preens his feathers.
The fluffed up look of a cold day.
After looking for the immature hawks perch without success, I returned to the Great Lawn to discover Pale Male had moved to the East Pinetum.
Were he settled into a tree that was to be his roost for the evening.