7/21, Hawkwatching

Friday was close to an empty night for hawks... almost. And no hawk pix worth showing.

The rain let up around 6:00, so I trucked over to Morningside Park at about 6:30. No hawks by the Cathedral. None in Morningside Park in the usual areas by the rockface and there are too many pigeons around. Not many people, though. The ducks look happy.

The same great egret is at the pond for the third day in a row (it's distinguishable by the mark on its left wing), and there's a cormorant for the first time since the start of the week. The egret isn't doing any fishing, but the cormorant is submarining, staying down for about 25 seconds at a time. Given the murkiness of the pond, one wonders how it finds any fish.

Made a pass around the path circling the softball fields. Bumped into Jackie walking her dog and she indicated that one of the Divine fledglings had been in the area in the morning, making a big ruckus in the trees just south of the rockface. No sight or sound now.

Back up to the pond. Another egret flies over at about 7:00 and circles, then alights in the very top of a tree just north of the pond. The sight of its neck and head sticking up from the treetop is strangely humorous. The cormorant is done fishing and is drying off. Then the egret in the tree takes off, circling twice before flying off to the south or southwest. If it was headed to Central Park, it took a strange route.

Made another pass around the ballfields. Still no hawks, and now the other egret is flying off. Might as well try a pass to the north... walked by the "aircraft carrier" and climbed the steps at 120th St. back up to Morningside Dr.

Slowly coming back south, I finally spotted a hawk at 7:40, perched on the top railing of the scaffolding on the Cathedral School. It's a fledgling and it wasn't there 20 minutes before. It doesn't seemed inclined to leave, so I head back to see if the trees or the rockface by the 116 Steps are harboring the other fledgling. No luck.

The fledge was still perched on the scaffolding at 8:07, after which I went to investigate robin alarms across the street from Saint Savior Chapel. Ten minutes doesn't reveal what they're upset about. By 8:20 the robins have shut up, rain is begining to lightly fall again, and the fledgling has ducked out of sight. Time for me to leave also.

On Saturday, I didn't head up to Morningside during the nice(r) weather in the afternoon as I was watching the Mets-Astros game on the tube. Arrived in the area at 7:00, just as rain was beginning to fall. Took a quick peek near the Cathedral School, but from its west side. No hawk sign, and the rain started to fall even harder.