Saturday I decided to visit the new Riverside Park nest in the late afternoon, and then if time permitted to scout northward and then check on the cathedral. Finding the nest between 80th and 81st Sts. proved no problem. Just look in the same direction as the policeman on the sidewalk along Riverside Drive who was looking into the park with binoculars. Sure enough.
The pic that I took then from a distance turned out to show the Riverside male standing in the nest as he made a food delivery. As I approached closer, he flew out and perched briefly in a tree 50 or 60 feet away.
Then he flew off north through the treetops. With him gone and the mother hunkered down in the nest on her eggs, several incipient hawkwatchers wandered off. I chatted with a couple other hawkwatchers for a bit, meanwhile wondering about that cardinal chirping overhead who kept changing its call. Oh, that's the mockingbird! Then I wandered down by the boat basin. On my return, all was quiet. Hmmm, time to head north. And verily, as I turned around, a red-tail popped out of the tree behind me and took off toward the corner of Riverside and 84th. Drat.
That was about as exciting as the day got. No sign of juvie red-tail(s) near Riverside and 110th, although the pigeons at that intersection kept circling about, and no peregrine falcons visible at the Riverside Church. Well, there was this really big eagle across the street:
Checking on the cathedral red-tail nest at 6:30, there was no sign of hawks anywhere.
The day ended in the cathedral close. As mystifying as the behavior of red-tail hawks can be sometimes, it doesn't approach the strangeness of the cathedral peacocks as sunset approached. Two of them seemed to be running laps, one in a path amongst the bushes and the other on the walkways. It was almost as if there was something in the area that disturbed them but they couldn't decide whether to rush at it or run away. I guess that's what they mean by pea-brained behavior.
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