Urban Hawks

April 20, 2006December 20, 2020Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Central Park South Change Of Pace

Until today watching the Central Park South Hawks nesting from the street has been like watching paint dry.

5:47 p.m. A light colored head appears. What’s Junior (the male) doing on the nest?

6:00-6:15 p.m. After some movement around the nest he looks like he’s trying to cool off a bit. Not your typical egg sitting behavior.

6:15 p.m. Charlotte returns with a gray squirrel. Unusual behavior, since Junior has spent the last month feeding her.

6:18 p.m. He quickly returns. Charlotte is in the back of the nest out of sight.

6:23 p.m. After both disappearing to the back of the nest, they both reappear. Junior then takes off for the evening.

6:30-7:00 p.m. Charlotte spends a lot of time out of sight, but also spends a lot of time at the edge of nest.

7:40 p.m. She settles down for the evening.

All of these behavior changes could be a sign that the eggs have hatched or are about to. We’ll know the answer in a few days.

Update: I received an email from Ben Cacace who was digiscoping (using a digital camera with a telescope) from a nearby hotel at the same time I was photographing from the street. From the higher view, there appeared to be an egg in the nest. So, we’ll need to wait a bit before passing out the cigars.

April 20, 2006December 25, 2020Other Animals

Young Raccoon Near The Hawk Bench

A young raccoon is living near the hawk bench and appears every evening around dusk. As night falls, many of the hawk watchers are now making a stop to look at him/her as they leave the park for the evening.

April 18, 2006December 20, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Lola Goes Into Overtime

I’m late, I’m late
For a very important date
No time to say “Hello”, “Goodbye”
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late

I run and then I hop hop hop. I wish that I could fly. There’s danger if I dare to stop, and here’s the reason why

You see, I’m overdue, I’m in a rabbit stew. Can’t even say goodbye, hello
I’m late, I’m late, I’m late

Lyrics from I’m Late from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.

Lola has been sitting on her nest longer than any successful year. In years past she has sat on the nest anywhere between 35-41 days before her eggs hatched. This could be a sign of another failure, or just a fluke. Since the Fifth Avenue hawk watchers can’t tell when eggs are laid, they count from when the female starts to stay on the nest. It’s possible, especially with a recently rebuilt nest, that she just started sitting on the nest without eggs earlier and all is fine.

April 16, 2006December 28, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

Kestrel Kamikazi

A little after 7 p.m. on Sunday, a Kestrel decided to give Pale Male a hard time. In years past, crows would have been the major pest, but the crow population has been decimated by the West Nile Virus and there are now very few in the park.

April 16, 2006December 20, 2020Other Birds

Belted Kingfisher

I added a new bird to my Central Park list on Sunday, a Belted Kingfisher.

April 16, 2006December 20, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Expecting Parents

The Fifth Avenue nest had hundreds of observers on Saturday. Many first time watchers stumbled onto the “hawk bench” while taking part in Easter activities in the park. (The “hawk bench” has great view of the nest, which during this season has lots of telescopes, including a power Meade telescope connected to a video camera/monitor generously provided by Lincoln Karim, www.palemale.com.)

Old timers were there looking to see if the chicks had hatched yet. The old timers have reasonable concerns since last year’s eggs failed to hatch.

Pale Male (the male Red-tailed Hawk) has a history of his first year nests failing, so after the nest was removed in the early winter of 2004/5, it was not surprising that the 2005 nest failed. Whether the nest was too small to keep the eggs insulated, the stress of building a new nest or possible punctures by the pigeon spikes in the nest are all possible reasons for first year failures.

The new nest cradle, added as a compromise over safety, might also be a problem. So, all eyes are on the nest. The hatching window is anytime in the next week or so. Hopefully, good news will be reported soon.

When I arrived in the late afternoon, Lola (the female, nesting Red-tailed Hawk), was very active.