After arriving at Central Park South around 2:15 p.m. on President’s Day, it took me awhile to find our two Trump Parc Red-tailed Hawks. I finally found them both on the northeast corner of the Trump International Hotel and Towers, at 61st and Central Park West.
While birding at the Oven (a section of the Ramble on the shore of the Lake), I was enjoying the variety of birds which included, Canada Geese, Mallards, a Mourning Dove, a Red-bellied Woodpecker, two Downy Woodpeckers, Blue Jays, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice, a Fox Sparrow, four Northern Cardinals, two male Red-winged Blackbirds, a Rusty Blackbird, a Common Grackle, a House Finch, and lots of House Sparrows.
Around 4:30 p.m. we spotted Pale Male with a rat circling over the Oven. He then headed towards 5th Avenue.
It was very cold. A group of us thought heading to see where Pale Male went with the rat would warm us up. So, it was off to “The Bench” by the model boat pond.
While birding on the shore of the Harlem Meer in Central Park, I saw a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks flying over East Harlem on Sunday afternoon. They flew progressively higher until I lost sight of them. They appeared to be flying over the housing developments that are bounded by Lenox Avenue, 1st Avenue, 112th and 115th Streets.
When I got home, I looked up the area on Google Earth and found that this is a strip of green that runs to the East River with Wards Island/Randalls Island across the river. What a great territory that would make for a Red-tailed Hawk pair. Especially if it also included Marcus Garvey Memorial Park and the area around the 125th Street Metro North Station.
Or is this just the eastern territory of a Morningside Park Red-tailed Hawk pair? Or the northern territory of a Central Park North Meadow pair?
Harlem’s Red-tailed population confuses the heck out of me!
I started birding on Sunday afternoon at the north end of the park and worked my way down to the Ramble.
On a very cold winter afternoon, I found this immature Red-tailed Hawk hunting in the Ramble at the area along the lake called the Oven. The hawk waited patiently for at least 30 minutes before swooping down to catch a rodent. It then flew with the prey to the Point for a few minutes before returning to a tree in the Oven to consume its catch, which took another 30 minutes. (The pictures in this post are fairly graphic. If you’re squeamish, feel free to skip this post.)
Pale Male and Lola perched on opposite towers of the Beresford Sunday afternoon around 1:30 pm. Pale Male was on the SE tower and Lola on the NE tower.
