Morningside Hawks

Catching sight of the St. John's cathedral hawks during winter has never been a simple thing as they have a sizable territory and don't hang around the nest area much. And with Norman apparently killed during the hurricane and a possible new male in the area, who knows what might be up. But late on a gloomy Friday afternoon, I got my first good look at Isolde in months.

She was perched 15 floors up on the roof of the condos at 1MSD, her back to the cathedral and generally keeping an eye on things to the south and west. Ten quiet minutes later, she stood up, leaped, and flew off west along 111th St.

Five minutes later I found her circling about over the intersection of Broadway and 110th. She didn't seem to be hunting the many area pigeons, and I suspect she was doing a see-and-be-seen to let someone in Riverside Park know who the territory belonged to. A minute or two later she turned east and headed back toward the cathedral.

Monday afternoon found a juvenile red-tailed in the treetops of Riverside Park, near the upper wall at 109th St. He looked very sedate, calmly digesting a meal in the afternoon sun.

Possibly it was the same young bird I'd gotten quick glimpses of in the area, either along Riverside or over on Broadway, during the past month.

Ten minutes after I first spotted him, the youngster shifted to a tree about 50 feet south.

The action here was looking dull, so I wandered north a few blocks to see if any other red-tails might be about. No luck. Returning to 109th St., I arrived just in time to see the young bird take to the air.

Possibly he was making an attack at a squirrel in a nearby tree, but if so, no dice. He turned around and disappeared down the hill into the trees around the skate park.

On a cold and gusty Sunday afternoon, Highbridge George was flying up and down the Harlem River shoreline, from the old nest site near Dyckman St. to the Washington Bridge at 181st St.

He hardly seemed to perch anywhere for longer than 20 seconds. Eventually it seemed he had given up on the increasingly shaded area in favor of the sunlit hilltop around GW High. But as sunset approached and I was making my exit, I discovered him settled and quietly digesting a meal on a tree branch overlooking the Highbridge Park path.

Sunday afternoon I headed uptown again to check on the Highbridge and Inwood red-tailed hawks. Maybe with luck I'd find they were working on new nests to replace those lost in the hurricane three months ago. But as it turned out, I spotted neither pair nor any potential nest. I did, however, encounter one juvenile red-tail having a late lunch on the south side of Inwood Hill Park, not far from the Dyckman St. playgrounds.

He was busy ripping feathers out of a pigeon as I was first headed up the hill. Some sledders using the snow-covered path saw me coming along with a camera and pointed him out before I had even spotted him.

A few minutes of feather pulling done, time for the main course.

Stop for a moment and glare at the growing group of onlookers.

Back to business.