Earlier this season, two of Pale Male’s offspring were poisoned by eating poisoned rats.  They were captured and send to WINORR on Long Island.  Today, they were returned to Central Park.   (I was unable to attend the release.  See the Roger Paw blog for reporting of the release.)

Their mother and later in the season, their sibling, disappeared. 

The mother was most likely killed by secondary poisoning.  

The other sibling may have died as well.  A young hawk was brought to the Wild Bird Fund about the time the youngster disappeared.  It died the same day.  Since the fall migration had already started, it wasn’t clear if this was the same hawk, but there is a good change it was.

These deaths and poisonings, along with a cluster of deaths in the spring due to poisonings, made 2012 the worst season for secondary poisoning deaths due to rodenticides for Red-tailed Hawks in New York City that I can remember.

The video and pictures below are of the two returned hawks, a male and a female.  It will be interesting to see how Pale Male responds to these two fledgling.  It’s very late in the year.  Will he force them out of the park?  Protect them?  Ignore them? What about his new mate?

This will be fun to watch over the next few weeks.