7/12-7/13, More Hanging about Morningside Drive

Thursday

Gorgeous day.

Almost immedately spot first red-tail hawk fledgling spotted at 5:22, perched quietly near the 112th St. overlook in Morningside Park. Not sure who this is as she's perched in profile and there's speckled shadow all over her.

On walking down Morningside Drive a few minutes later, find a second fledgling perched a bit more than a block south. This looks like Brownie.

She's in obvious sight to anyone who bothers to look around as the walk, with bright sunshine gleaming off her pale front. Actually, this will prove it difficult to take pictures, as in many she ends up over-exposed.

While checking out Brownie from below, she returns the favor, although she's more likely to be scoping out the two small dogs running around.

Then she turns back around and lets out some very loud screeches from Brownie. These are more a "whole wheat" cry rather than the seagull-like fledgling whining.

Roam around the south end of Morningside Park and along Morningside Drive two or three times over the next hour and half, but no further hawk sightings a re made. The first fledgling has moved off to parts unknown by 6:00. Brownie stays put the entire time, doing no more than shift position on the same branch and with no further screeching when I happen to be around.

Just past 7:30 Brownie finally decides to move elsewhere, first flying to a treetop close to the southwest corner of the park, then somewhere east along 110th St.

Friday

Not so gorgeous day. Muggy and very overcast.

Reach Morningside Drive just before 6:00 and suspect there's a hawk near-by as there seems to be some isolated screeching from around rockface hill. Then am immediately treated to sight of fledgling flying into tree near 112th St. overlook. She looks around for a couple minutes...

...and then apparently tries to snatch a mouse or squirrel on the ground on the other side of the overlook. She barely misses the head of someone sitting on a bench as she makes her swoop. The attack is unsuccessful and she immediately flies across the street, perched briefly atop the chainlink fence by St. Savior chapel, and then flies up into a tree to the south.

Okay, good look at the belly band there. But after the experience of last Sunday, I'm not really sure whether this is Eldest or Youngest. My guess is Eldest, but I wouldn't swear to it.

A few minutes later she flies back across the street and perches high above the sidewalk by the 112-1/2th St. entrance to Morningside Park. With the bad light, and what light there is being back lighting, she's hard to see and the the average pedestrian would almost surely never spot her up there. Five minutes later when I'm looking another way, she quietly disappears.

After wandering into south end of Morningside Park, find on walking back north that a fledglig has perched on one of the dead tree branches on rockface hill.

Hard to say who this is, as she's all fluffed up.

But when I rush up the stairs to get a better view, she disappears. Damn.

But, but... from top of hill, turn around to see that an adult hawk is perched on the corner of the roof at the hospital.

And there are pedestrians gathering on the sidewalk by the park entrance to watch a fledgling perched on a tree branch and chowing down on a pigeon.

Again the belly band is not helpful, but this looks like either Eldest or Youngest.

The fledgling spends close to 15 minutes eating her pigeon, during which I wander over to 113th St. for a minute and dtermine that the adult on the hospital roof is Tristan. Around 6:45 she finishes up, looks around a bit, tries to wipe the schmutz off her beak and nose by scraping them along on the branch.

Then she shifts over to the streetlight by the 112th St. overlook.

Where she occasionally tries to wipe her beak off and sometimes slips when doing so, ...

... checks out pedestrians, ...

... stares at squirrels in near-by trees, ...

... and perhaps stares at things farther away.

After 7-8 minutes she takes off, first buzzing along the sidewalk for 40-50 feet and surprising the heck out of some pedestrians and bike riders before peeling off east and down into the park.

Another fledgling sighting was made about 15 minutes later down by the small basketball court, when a hawk flew from the east side of the park and into one of the tallest trees on bottom of rockface hill. While perched there she screeched a few times, again the "whole wheat" screech of a healthy hawk, before flying somewhere west or southwest.

7/8, Three Kids on Morningside Drive

Another hawkwatching fallacy: Thinking you've figured out a way to distinguish between fledglings.

Sunday

Sunday was hot, so I didn't even consider visiting Morningside Park until relatively late. But on my way to family dinner, I figured I'd swing by. At about 6:20 I was at the southwest corner of the park and saw several pedestrians two blocks up Morningside Drive behaving in a manner suggestive of hawkwatching. Noticing someone trying to use a cell-phone camera was the clincher.

It turned out that all three cathedral red-tail fledglings were perched within about 75 feet of each other.

One was perched directly above the park wall along the sidewalk and only 10 feet overhead.

Another was perched to the north at about the same height but about 30 feet from the sidewalk.

And although I didn't realize it right away, the third was was perched another 20-30 feet further north, but more like 50 feet up.

Now, what's the fallacy? That based on the belly bands, one could distinguish between the three fledglings. The second hawk seen was plainly Brownie, but the light-or-medium idea for distinguishing between Eldest and Youngest wasn't working at all. The first and third fledglings spotted both had light/medium belly bands. Making matters tougher, the one that seemed larger also seemed to have the lighter belly band, so either Youngest is no longer Runt-ish, or... well, maybe it's just the angle of view and that they're not sitting close enough for a really good comparison.

So forgetting the belly band feathers and going by apparent size alone, I decided that the first fledgling was Youngest/Runt and the third way up in the tree Eldest. YMMV.

And what were they up to?

Youngest was screeching a bit, not necessarily at the near-by spectators. Of the three he seemed to be the only one without food in his crop. After a few minutes he flew south 20-30 feet to a perch just below eye-level, and while quieting down, still spent the next 15 minutes actively looking around, down, up and around. It was a hell of a spot, tailor-made for picture posing.

Click on any of these pix to see bigger versions. Be sure to click the "all sizes" icon on Flickr to check out the really big pix of Youngest.

Brownie on the other hand seemed pretty happy with her perch, but was also busy looking around. One wondered if there were mice scurrying around beneath as she looked down a lot. She also sat with wings spread to dissipate heat, but was not panting.

She got some sun now and again, but her spot was generally shady.

But up in the top of her tree, Eldest was getting plenty more sun. Her mouth was open almost all the time but she uttered nary a screech.

At 6:45, Youngest decided to move on. He took off, flew past me and then other the head of a fellow getting something out of the passenger side of a car parked along the street. Me he missed by 7-8 feet, but the guy at the car by just a couple feet. Whooosh!

Youngest came to rest in a tree along the sidewalk over by the Cathedral School and stayed there for at least the next 20 minutes.

Ten minutes later, as I was checking on Youngest, Brownie also decided it was time to move, but she too didn't go far. In fact, she moved even less, going straight to the top of a streetlight that Youngest passed on his flight.

A few minutes after 7:00, while I was chatting with a passer-by, Brownie quietly disappeared, flying to parts unknown.

I needed to leave also, but when I left Youngest and Eldest were still in place.

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.