Urban Hawks

December 20, 2006December 15, 2020Owls

December 2006

The first email from Chris…

Hi Bruce,

I was catching up with your blog today, Bruce, and noticed your post from
November speculating that there are no longer any Eastern Screech Owls in
the park.
Never fear: though I don’t know where they live (at the moment), I have
seen one or two ESOs hunting in the familiar areas, on more
than one occasion when I’m out walking my dog after dark. The most recent
sighting was last week, when an ESO did a fly-by as I watched a raccoon
shamble down from a tree for her evening dumpster diving.
So, they’re still around, probably enjoying the peace and quiet that comes
when one’s avian celebrity star has waned a bit.
with best wishes for the holidays (all of them),

Chris

December 17, 2006December 25, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Christmas Bird Count

Central Park had its 107th Annual Christmas Bird Count on Sunday. (To accommodate various greater New York locations, the counts are held on various days before and after Christmas.)

The Count is a census which records the number of each species found in the entire park. There are seven
teams, splitting up the park into sections, Northwest, Northeast, Reservoir, Great
Lawn, Ramble, Southwest and Southeast. The teams all start at the South Pump House, split up to do
their section’s and then meet back at the Arsenal for lunch and the tally.

The mix of birders included all skill levels, from beginners to experts. So, if you don’t think you’re qualified for the event, don’t worry. Join in next year, everyone is welcome.

Marie Winn giving a portion of the Ramble team its instructions.

Our first raptor was this Cooper’s Hawk. It keep our initial numbers down at the feeders in the Ramble, which was free of birds as long as the Cooper’s Hawk was about.
(Most of my pictures I took were of the raptors we found. This, however, is not representative of our day. My photographs of the day clearly reflect my fascination with raptors, not the full range of birds we saw!)

Our second raptor was a Red-tailed Hawk by the area along the Lake called the Oven.

This is the same Red-tailed Hawk as seen earlier. It looks to be Pale Male, but I can’t be certain. The morning was cold and this bird had puffed up to stay warm making it harder to make an I.D.

Red-tailed Hawk just outside the park on a water tower.

New York City Park’s Commissioner, Adrian Benepe.

After the count, I went out to look for hawks in the Great Lawn area. I found this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in a tree inside the Diana Ross playground at 81st and Central Park West.

After about twenty minutes the hawk moved about 20 feet east before moving from tree to tree about 100 feet north.

Then the hawk took off and was chased by an adult hawk up to the top of the Great Lawn.

When I caught up to them, the juvenile hawk was nowhere to be found, but Pale Male was there with a pose that said, “Youngster, this is my territory.”

December 16, 2006December 25, 2020Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

103rd Street

I walked through The Rambles, the Great Lawn and the Reservoir without seeing anything too unusual. So, I left Central Park and made my way to 103rd and Amsterdam. The Parakeet nest was empty, so I walked through the Fredrick Douglas Houses, and saw a group of about 100 pigeons circling overhead. A sure sign a raptor was about.

On top of 875 Columbus, I found a Red-tailed Hawk. This building is at the top of a hill and must have great views in all directions.

The hawk stayed for about 30 minutes before flying at least 20 blocks south-southwest. I had been all set to say it was the Cathedral Female, before the long flight south!

After the hawk left, I went to the Monk Parakeet nest. There was a couple watching them with binoculars. They reported that the Monks had just arrived around 4:10. The Parakeets tucked themselves into their roost by 4:25.

December 10, 2006December 17, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

A December Sunday in Central Park

I entered the park at 103rd and Central Park West.

The Pool and the Loch were quiet, but there was noise to the south, so I went to the north edge of the North Meadow. Two adult hawks appeared. One went north out of sight and the other circled overhead.

This hawk may be the St. John the Divine female, but I can’t be certain. It flew south down to about 90th.

The hawk moved from tree to tree, not settling in for more than ten minutes per branch.

Blue Jays were making it difficult to find peace and quiet. The hawk looked to be hunting rodents along the west park wall, so I left to avoid interfering.

I walked along the Reservoir, through the Pinetum, and down the Locust Grove. In the Locust there were a number of squirrels making alarm calls. Fifty feet away in a tree on the Great Lawn was the cause, Pale Male.

He had been in the same tree for most of the afternoon.

Before moving to another tree that had the last bit of sunlight.

Lola was in her usual spot on the Beresford.

December 9, 2006December 25, 2020Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Not What I Was Looking For…

I went into Central Park on Saturday hoping to find a Cooper’s Hawk, take a few pictures of Pale Male and then go off to the Monk Parakeets on Amsterdam Avenue.

As often happens when birding, I ended up with a different set of observations.

This American Kestrel was on the Met. I missed the Cooper’s Hawk, which I found out from other birders had spent an hour in the Tupelo tree in the Ramble.

The Reservoir had a number of ducks, including two pairs of Hooded Mergansers.

I then went off to 103rd and Amsterdam. No sign of the Parakeets, who seem to have completed their nest/roost. I suspect that they’ll be harder to spot now, since they’re going to spend more time exploring the neighborhood now that the nest is done.

Having struck out with the Parakeets, I went to the The Pool and the Loch in Central Park. The Pool was quiet and partially frozen over. In the Loch, I heard a group of Blue Jays. They were aggressively after this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. There are a number of young hawks in the city this fall. One is in Tompkins Square Park, which someone has given a very complicated Myspace page.

This young hawk moved from tree to tree moving west to the Pond and then up to the Great Hill. It made a number of half hearted hunting attempts along the way.

Good luck making it through your first winter.

December 6, 2006December 25, 2020Other Birds

East vs. West, Where Did The Amsterdam Monks Come From?

Where did the Monk Parakeets on Amsterdam Avenue come from? Neither are banded, so they probably came from a wild colony in either New Jersey or Brooklyn.

The closest colony to Amsterdam Avenue, is in Edgewater, New Jersey. If a bird flew directly across the Hudson River it would arrive at around 138th and Riverside Drive going over the water for about a mile. (One of the unanswered question is do Monk Parakeets fly over large bodies of water?)

The nearest Brooklyn nest is about 8 miles away in Red Hook Park.

Monk Parakeets were seen in Central Park at various times over the last two years (see NYC Bird Report for details.) There have also been a number of reports from Riverside Drive this summer.

103rd Street is a great gateway between Central Park and Riverside Drive. Two blocks of 103rd are a pedestrian walkway through the grounds of the Fredrick Douglas Houses. It is also south of the 113th Street Cathedral Red-tails and north of the 96th and Broadway American Kestrels, so it may be a safe street for a Parakeet. Look it up on Google Maps. Or better yet, use Steve Baldwin’s map of Brooklyn and New Jersey Parrots and scroll up and zoom into Amsterdam and 103rd, after selecting Hybrid mode to get a sense of the surroundings.

So, did these two come from New Jersey? Did the Riverside Monk meet up with the Central Park Monk? Who knows.