After just a glimpse of Tristan in Morningside Park early Friday evening, and a Saturday at home still trying to shake a cold, I opted to go north on Sunday. Bruce posted pix on Friday of the Highbridge red-tailed hawk nest, complete with brooding female, and so that was my first goal.
I reached the 190s section of Amsterdam Ave. before 4:00 and ended up spending 20 minutes or so re-locating the nest. Searching from above wasn't working and it wasn't until I walked down into the park that I realized that the problem was that the nest was a block north of where I had previously estimated its position. No sign from below, though, that the nest was occupied, but at 4:10 on walking back up to the upper level of the park I was cheered to see a hawk hovering in the air overhead. A half minute later he dropped down to perch on one of the many antenna structures gracing the top of the north wing of the Isabella senior center at the corner of Audubon Ave. and 191st St.
A minute later he was back in the air and flew out over the park. Hmmm, somebody's got a few chewed up feathers. Should be easy to identify this guy in the future from his R6 tail feather.
I lost him in the trees, but he re-appeared atop the Isabella within another five to ten minutes. Round about then I also finally got a look at the nest from above. It can be tough to spot because of intervening twigs and branches; if your lenses are not quite focused at the right distance, you can slide right by it. It will be impossible to see once the trees start sprouting leaves. But for the moment, you can still see the Higbridge mama.
Aside from the male going for another soar and then returning to perch amongst the Isabella antennas, not much went on for the next 15 minutes. And then it started to drizzle a little.
By 4:40 I was on my way back to the subway station, but I opted to go further north and see if I could also check off a viewing of the Inwood Hill Park nest. happily, it wasn't raining when I got up to 215th St.
The Inwood nest was fairly easy to spot from below, but it took another 15 minutes of hiking to the top of the hill and then scrounging around for a spot with a halfway unobstructed view. But about 5:30 I finally was in place. Just the female in sight, hunkered down in the nest.
I hung out about the area for another 20-25 minutes, but again it started to drizzle a little and I did need to meet someone to watch the baseball game later. Still no sign of the Inwood red-tail male when I left.
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