Thursday, May 3rd
A wonderful 60 degree evening with a crystal clear sky. Chris, her dog Fig, Maureen and I were the regulars for the evening.
Waiting for them to grow up
At St. John the Divine we know there are babies because of the feeding behavior of the parents, but because of the deep bowl and height of the nest they aren’t visible. I keep waiting for one of the eyasses to be strong enough to pop its head up. But it just hasn’t happened yet. On Thurdsay, we got to see the parents do feedings, saw both of them off the nest, and saw the male with a mouse. Everything but an eyas!
Wednesday, May 2nd
A nice evening, with Marie, Jim, Chris and myself watching the owls.
Old School 2 – New School 2
I’ve received confirmation that a chick has hatched at 888 Seventh Avenue, so that makes the second building nest to hatch in Manhattan. So the Old School/New School score is tied 2-2.
The report came in from Brett Odom, who reports “This morning Jr. brought a pigeon to the nest and dropped it off. When Charlotte got up to prepare it I got a really good look at most of the empty nest. It looks to me that there is only one chick and no other eggs, but I could be wrong as part of the nest is obscured by a metal strip that connects the two pieces of decorative glass that the nest is behind. The eyas is currently no bigger than a softball, but is very active when not being sit upon.”
It looks like the Pale Male and Lola, 5th Avenue nest is yet again unsuccessful this year. Although this is sad news, it shouldn’t keep you from watching baby Red-tails. They’re all over Manhattan and greater New York. So, make a visit to the other nests. Red-tails nests are all over New York City for your enjoyment!
And if the locations are too remote for you to get to, remember that the NYC Audubon sponsored Queens Red-tailed Hawk camera operates 24/7. It can be accessed from either Jeffrey Kollbrunner’s website or from the NYC Audubon website.
Monday, April 30th
I was the only regular. The three owls were tucked into the center of the Willow this evening, a safe resting place given the high winds.
At fly out they stayed close to the Willow, first in low trees and then in the protection of a small tree due east from the Willow.
No songs tonight, but the parents continued to ignore the fledgling and do their head rubbing. I wonder if this is part of the natal dispersal process, a clue that they might start a second brood–given the loss of their three other fledglings, or just normal behavior.
Fourth Owl, April 30th
Scott was kind enough to show me an owl in middle of the park this evening. I called Jean, and she came down to watch it with me. When dusk approached, I went up to watch the North Woods fly out and Jean stayed behind to study this forth owl of the season.
This was her wonderful report:
“Country owl, for sure – good long look at whole left leg (elaborate bath) not long after you left. Finally flew out around 8:10, to scrawny tree across downhill sidewalk. Mobbed and mobbed by robins and littler birds, and just sat there and took it for another 10 min, then moved to evergreen just below the roost one, mobbed and mobbed and didn’t move. That’s her hunting strategy, apparently: she just sat and waited until one of them got too bold and then WHAM! Ben came by just before that – I couldn’t believe that’s what I saw, but he said he definitely saw robin-size package in talons – clever little owl.”
N.B: The reference to “Country owl”, was that the owl did not look to be banded. I had taken pictures of the right leg earlier and Jean got a good look at the left leg. We could have missed the band, they’re hard to see, but if the bird is not banded, it could either be a mature second generation bird born to owls released in 2001 or a migrant from outside the park. The later seemed most realistic at the time, hence the phrase “Country owl”. However in hindsight, we really don’t know enough to make a guess.
