11/29, Enjoying the Sunset Together

Twenty stories up at the Douglass Houses at 4:10 p.m., or 19 minutes before official sunset. The duo went to roost about 4:20.

11/11, Isolde?

Manhattan Ave. at 103rd St., 4:10 p.m. This adult red-tail was just finishing off dinner, and after a beak wipe on the edge of the roof, took off to roost for the night, perhaps somewhere near the Central Park Pool.

This makes only the sixth definite sighting I've made of a free red-tail since mid-June. Four, including the above, were in the Douglass Houses or very close by. A fifth, on Labor Day, was down by the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and was either the Boat Basin baby or one of its parents. The sixth was perched on the Cardinal Cooke health center chimney, on the far side of Central Park, in early October.

Other than that, throw in a pair of kestrels who were in the Douglass Houses in early September, a couple other sightings of kestrels around St. John's cathedral, and several osprey fishing high mountain lakes when I went backpacking in August.