2/28, Inwood Hill Park

Saturday afternoon was gorgeous, a perfect time to go for a long walk in the parks of upper Manhattan and along the Hudson River. It was, however, too late in the day to catch the eagles on the river.

Near sunset, I found myself passing through the nest area of the Inwood Hill Park hawks. First hawk sighting of the day was a juvie red-tail perched about 200 yards from the nest. A few minutes later he flew into the top of an evergreen where it seemed he was going to roost. One of the resident adults soon appeared and gave a hard stare.

But apparently decided it wasn't worth the effort to chase the interloper out of the area this late in the day. The adult soon took off to its own roosting spot.

2/15, Inwood Hill Park

A sunny but frigid Sunday afternoon looked like it was going to be noteworthy for the lack of interesting birds in the air. But not long before sunset, I encountered the Inwood Hill Park red-tailed hawks in the ravine very close to where their nest is located.

Initially they were moving from tree to tree, but one had a very full crop and soon picked a perch where (s)he could digest the meal. The other stuck around for just a couple minutes and then disappeared around the hill to the east.

3/2, Inwood Hill Park

Checked on three red-tailed hawk nesting sites in upper Manhattan on Sunday afternoon and saw three nests but just one hawk.

In Inwood Hill Park, last year's nest near 214th St. fell out of the tree later in the year, and the hawks have moved back to their old tree in the ravine. The new-old nest looks well along and almost ready for the first egg, which will probably be between two and three weeks from today.

The Inwood nest was the last site I checked on the day, and it was near sunset. The female was perched about 50 yards away from the nest, chilling out before bedtime and possibly digesting dinner.

1/26, Inwood Hill Park

A two-hour walk on a cold day with only about four minutes of raptor sightings? Totally worth it.

A hike along the parkway from the GW Bridge up to Dyckman St. was fruitless, but on reaching Dyckman... bang. A red-tail perched in the tree above the house at Payson Playground on the south side of Inwood Hill Park. From the looks of it, the Inwood adult male.

After a walk along the Hudson shoreline in Dyckman Fields and starting along the trail around the hill... good god, something huge over the river. A bald eagle! It circled about a few times and then headed back north toward Riverdale.

The park ranger and the bird watchers down by the river must have gotten an eyeful.

3/3, Relocated Nests and a Juvenile's Sunday Dinner

As mentioned here previously, the two northernmost red-tailed hawks nests were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. With egg-laying time just a couple weeks away, it seemed that both sites ought to have new nests by now. Sunday I headed up town to check.

I entered Highbridge Park at my usual spot at 190th St. by the Wallenberg playground and headed downhill toward a likely nest site near Harlem River Dr. that I had spotted a week ago. Before I got that far, George soared overhead and landed high up a tree near where he and Martha nested 5-6 years ago.

He had spotted me, too.

But there were plenty of other things for him to watch, also.

Since George looked set to stay where he was for a while, I continued down toward Harlem River Dr. Sure enough there was a new nest, and in a much better spot for hawkwatchers than three of Martha and George's last four nests (they've moved around bit). The new site is about 200 yards south of last year's nest, located directly across HRD from the gate to the Swindler's Cove dock and boathouse. The interior is easily visible from a couple spots along the park path, and may even remain so once the leaves start coming in on the trees.

It was getting late and it didn't seem like I had much time to check out Inwood Hill, but I had gotten a tip where the new nest there was located so shouldn't need to spend any time searching. I headed west along Dyckman St., my attention wandering as I got closer to the subway stop at the base of Ft. George Hill.

Hold it. There's something large moving around on a broken tree branch next to the playground at the very tip of the park.

A big juvenile red-tail, almost certainly a girl. In fact, I first thought she might be Highbridge Martha, but it was apparent soon enough that she was a year-old bird.

She was also digging into something tasty and didn't care much about me moving around below taking pictures.

One less neighborhood rat.

Her eating habits reminded me a bit of a young child.

After ten minutes she's starting to slow down a bit.

Again, not too concerned about me walking below her branch, less than 20 feet away.

One last picture and it's time to go.

Fifteen minutes later I was inside Inwood Hill Park walking past the baseball fields. Sure enough, there was a hawk nest exactly where I had heard it was. It was located on the edge of the park, overlooking the Indian Road playground and right where some residents of 214th St. might be able to look out their apartment windows and see all the comings and goings. The locations was also almost a quarter mile east of the old nest site in the park ravine. I've already heard it suggested that the hawks re-built so far away because the great horned owls are nesting in that area again.

2/10, Late Lunch in Inwood

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.

3/18, Brooding in Inwood

On a very nice late Sunday afternoon I checked on the red-tail nest in Inwood Hill Park and was rewarded with the sight of a nest switch-off.

Just a minute or so of activity as the female returned from a meal (check out that crop) and rest break and the male took off. The female gave me one dirty glare, and then all was quiet (except for the chirping cardinal and the whining squirrel)..

I hoped to also see one of the great horned owls who have also been in Inwood Hill Park this spring, and who were spotted there as recently as a day ago, but had no luck. Several neighborhood folk were about checking the tree tops, so I know I was at least checking the right area. Oh, well.