1/2, Mystery Hawk in the North Woods

Mystery Hawk in the North Woods, Jan. 2

I had the day off today, as I work at a federal government office and we all got the day off because of the national day of mourning for President Ford. But the weather being sunny, albeit breezy, that of course meant I made a trip over to the north end of Central Park to look for around for the red-tailed hawks. It turned out to be one of the strangest such trips yet.

I was again on the late side, entering the park at West 100th St. a bit before 3:00. After a stroll by the North Meadow, Sparrow Rock, the Compost Hill, Nutter's Battery and back up the Ravine, I reached the high point of the North Woods. Nothing promising at that point except for a few excited but short-lived jay jeers in the Ravine. But at 3:27 I saw a hawk fly into the top of a tree a couple hundred feet away, nearly on the opposite side of the fenced off area, so I couldn't approach directly. I tried circling clockwise, hoping to get a photo angle with better light, but as I did so, she started doing likewise, changing perches two or three times and doing one out-and-back swoop northeast of the Blockhouse. By 3:36 she had flown off to the south, last seen somewhere in the vicinity of the Wildflower Meadow, and I had taken no pictures and had no idea whether I'd seen an adult or juvenile.

I wandered about the rocky crest of the North Woods for a few minutes and then though about striking in a new direction, but at 3:48 came another sighting as a hawk flew from the Great Hill area and alit on a high branch in perhaps te same tree as my first sighting. Same hawk? Presumably. Certainly similar behavior as she treated me to a teasing game of hide and seek for the next 35-40 minutes. A few perches in the North Woods, then across the loop road to trees along the verge of the Great Hill lawn, then back to the North Woods, then back toward the Great Hill.

But at the start she did stay still long enough that I could take a few pix that might even come out. Well, sort of...

Perhaps the "teasing" behavior was because the hawk really did have her eye on me, and had decided that 100-120 feet was the closest I was going to get. Even in the obscured shot above, where I have just gotten a half-decent look at her through a collection of branches, she is staring right back at me. None of the wide-eyed, "who are you look" of the juvenile seen this past Saturday, but almost a challenge in her eye. "I've got my eye on you, buddy. Better not step out of line."

But the game of hide and seek and the glaring eyes were not the strange part of this particular hawk sighting. No, it was that I have no clue what hawk it was.

The first problem was that although a couple of the photographs I took seem to show single-colored tail feathers, and so indicate that this was an adult red-tailed hawk, the angle of the pix was just enough off or there was just enough shadow that I wouldn't say for sure that it was an adult.

(BTW: Note the full crop. This birdie is stuffed.)

But assuming that was an adult red-tail, who was it? Well, on that question I'll assert that it was neither Tristan or Isolde. The belly band is too heavy for Tristan. But it's not Isolde either because the shoulder feathers are too light and because Isolde's eyes are dark. This one had light eyes, like a younger hawk, whether a juvie or a second- or third-year.

So if this was an adult, then it was a ringer. It's known that there is a ringer who's been hunting the park area west of the Reservoir, and possibly even two. Was this (that one|one of those)?

Thoughts anyone? Use the comments if you care to venture your own guess.

And speaking of the ringer(s), once I finally lost track of this mystery hawk, I tried heading south to West 86th St. to see if I could find where the one's roost was at. No luck. Even if it was there, I was presumably much too late to get a glimpse of it moving about and it was getting too dark to really look around.