7/7, Peck Your Sister

Sorry for the slow post, but the small amount of traffic to this blog is not encouraging me to sort through all the pix faster.

Saturday

4:01 p.m. - Barely stepped into the southwest entrance to Morningside Park (corner of 110th St. and Morningside Drive), started down the steps, and looked across the park to spot a red-tailed hawk perched atop 272 Manhattan Ave. when a hawk came flying right by me headed the other direction. She alit on the the pole holding the street sign right on the street corner. Ah-hah, a fledgling.

She looked around for a minute...

... while a few pedestrians walked by below without noticing her. Then she flew back into the park into a tree alongside the steps.

Again lots of looking around, with an occasional screech to get an adult's attention.

4:09 - A quick glimpse of an adult flying overhead and disappearing southeast.

4:15 - After looking around near park area near stairs, realize fledgling is gone. Hawk perched over on 272 is also gone.

4:25 - Walking up Manhattan Ave. past park entrance at 112th St., note boatload of robin complaints. No need to look too hard for hawk as first an Italian ice vendor points it out, then when the hawk moves a bench sitter also proves helpful.

Turns out that it's papa Tristan, and he's perched on a branch 20-25 directly over the head of a score of people watching the youth baseball game in progress.

4:33 - Move over to bottom of 116 Steps where there's shade but I can still keep an eye on Tristan from a distance. Sit down and cool off for a while.

4:40 - Time to check south end of park for fledglings again. Approaching southwest corner, a fledgling comes zipping out of trees about 20 feet ahead and no more than 10 feet above ground. Looks like she might be trying to nail a pigeon on the ballfield grass, but if so she misses. Flies back into a tree near entrance steps.

4:44 - And it's very lovely perch for all involved.

Belly band is not "heavy", so this is either Eldest or Youngest but not Brownie. (We'll say she's Eldest.) Looks like the same fledgling who was on the street sign earlier.

4:48 - She shuffles about a bit before flying off a tree 100 feet east and closer to 110th St... where after a half minute I realize she is perched next to a sibling. The second one looks like Brownie, and they both look the same size.

They spend the next several minutes eying each other. And when one looks the other way, there's some "helpful" attempts to preen the other.

Those feathers that stick out from the leading edge of the wing where the elbow should be seem to fascinate Eldest, and finally she gets hold of one.

4:55 - Finally they give up on playing "peck your sister" and give their mutual attention to their surroundings.

Catbirds near the park entrance are one visual target.

4:59 - And there's some examination of the other's grooming skills.

5:02 - Another hawk flies overhead and lands high in a tree by the entrance steps. Whine-whine-whine, then one of the fledglings flies up there too. By the time I figure where they're at, all I see is the red tail of a parent vacating the premises.

5:07 - While I'm up on the Morningside Drive sidewalk angling for a better picture of Eldest, Brownie vacates the the lower tree and flies off north.

5:13 - No sign of the fledgling in the trees along the rockface area, but there's a great egret in the pond area. She flies into the willow as I walk up, perhaps getting away from a kid throwing stones.

No sign of Tristan perched over the ball game, now that I check over there.

5:22 - Back down at the southwest corner of the park, Eldest is still perched near the steps.

5:27 - And still there when I leave.