Thought I'd wander afield this past weekend. Luck was bad and good.
Saturday
Jim reported in December that he'd spotted a possible location for the Highbridge Park red-tailed hawk nest up in the 190s. It took a while to find as I didn't follow his directions explicitly due to unfamiliarity with the area (only one park entrance from above?) and the trashy look of the park. Assuming that it was the correct nest, it struck me as being small and un-maintained. Cross it off, I thought. But there was another nest in a tree about 100 feet north and a bit further off the path which was larger and looked more recent. However, in the 45-plus minutes that I was in the general area, I saw no hawks.
I subsequently walked up Dyckman St. and into Inwood Hill Park. No love from hawks there either, aside from one possible glimpse of two large birds together distantly seen through the trees. And no sign of peregrines around the Broadway Bridge.
Back to Morningside Heights and arrived at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine just before 6:00. No one in the nest. No one perched atop Wadleigh School or any other nearby rooftops.
Six miles of walking and no hawks seen. Oh, well, I needed the exercise.
Sunday
Woke up to a gorgeous day planning to go to CP South and see what was up with Palemale Jr. and Charlotte. But before leaving the apt., I saw Bruce's Saturday post and figured I'd check Riverside Park instead. I'd forgotten about the various hawk sighting reports, and if I didn't see any, at the least I'd get a look at Riverside Red, the woodpecker.
Passed by 92nd St. and saw no sign of woodpecker or birdwatchers. Just past 4:00 and a couple blocks south of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, I sighted a hawk hovering over Riverside Dr. at about 82nd St. I lost her a minute later as she came north but moved in over buildings. Five minutes later when I was down at 80th St., I looked north to see essentially the same thing again. At 4:15, after I entered the park and started back north along the mid-level path, the hawk re-appeared, this time hovering, hovering near the monument.
Then she-went into dive-bomb mode, plummeting to a point just southwest of the monument. I wondered, has she been taking lessons from peregrines?
A few minutes later, the red-tail was soaring about north of the monument. A few minutes after that she was joined by another red-tail.
There was some diving at each other, and even one tangle-up.
The aerial show went on for several minutes, and didn't seem like a territorial dispute.
I was convinced that I was watching a pair of adults going through a courtship flight. But looking at pix afterwards, especially the following two, revealed that that idea was wrong; they were both juveniles.
By 4:30, it was just the one hawk again, the one who really knows the air currents and could hover over Riverside Dr. like a kite on a string.
She made another dive-bomb south of the monument, but was back in the air quickly. There were plenty of pigeons in the area, but they were all in trees or on ledges and staying off the ground.
Just before 4:45 she flew off to the north and I opted to move that way too. At 92nd St. I found two birdwatchers looking for the red-headed woodpecker. There was a likely suspect in a tree alongside the street, but no that's a yellow-bellied sapsucker. A moment later, the red-head flew up and the sapsucker took off. Red then moved into the park, and played uncooperative by finding shaded spots to do most of his pecking.
I hung out until just after 5:00, calling "hawk up" at one point as a red-tail passed overhead flying south. It was time to keep heading in the direction of the Cathedral, but again the hovering hawk re-appeared, this time over 96th St. at 5:10.
She dive-bombed again toward something to the south. I turned around and headed north. But no, one more appearance to come, as a hawk came flying out of the neighborhood at 107th St. and into the park at 5:25.
Although it wasn't apparent in all shots, many of the pix I got of the hovering hawk revealed what looked one slightly short feather on the right wing. This was apparent on the first pix taken down around 87th St. and finally at 96th. The sighting from 107th was at the wrong angle to tell.
Finally reached the Cathedral at 5:40. Light of course is still good because of the time-zone reset. But no hawks in the nest. No hawks anywere in sight.
At 6:00 as I'm taking a picture of the Cathedral from the southeast corner of the park, I belatedly see a hawk flying west-to-east across Morningside Park. But no sign that it was heading for any of the obvious perches east of the park. Finally at 6:15 one of the Cathedral hawks appears, perched at Wadleigh School.
At 6:30, there's still enough light to keep an eye on the (empty) nest, but Sunday family dinner calls.
Monday
Over the the Cathedral at 5:30. No one in the nest. Ah, both Isolde and Tristan are perched atop Wadleigh School. Apparently chilling out and preening is the order of business.
Over the next 45 minutes the only excitement comes when Tristan decides to rotate on his perch so that he faces north rather than south.
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