7/17, Dinner on the Overlook

Tuesday

Not quite as nice as Monday, but the weather is decent.

6:44 - Moments after walking down the steps at the southwest corner entrance of Morningside Park, a hawk is visible circling about over Manhattan Ave, up around 112th and 113th Sts. Even at this distance, it's fairly apparent through teh camera viewfinder that the tail is brown, so it's a fledgling.

And then she shoots across the park and up somewhere above the 116 Steps.

6:50 - And after climbing up the hill, too, and looking around a minute, the fledgling is plainly visible on a tree branch overhanging the 112th St. overlook and the sidewalk along Morningside Drive. She has her face buried in something.

No sign of an adult around, so if there was a food hand-off, I missed it. But whatever dinner is, it doesn't look very big so maybe the fledge caught it herself.

7:06 - Despite the small size, dinner kept the fledgling occupied for 15 minutes, and several pedestrians got an eyeful. I had to assure one jogger that seeing a red-tail easting dinner in a tree along a Manhattan sidewalk is not a weird thing to happen. Almost the contrary these days.

The fledge has stuff all over her beak...

... so it's time for some vigorous scraping along the branch.

7:07 - Look around for a few minutes.

7:10 - Then fly across the street to a tree overhanging the opposite sidewalk near St. Boniface Chapel.

7:12 - Flap over to an adjacent tree.

7:13 - Then up to a branch overhanging the center-line of Morningside Drive. mess about with the loose bark on a branch. Again, that might be beak hygiene.

Hmmm, checking that belly band, I'd guess it's Eldest.

7:23 - Except for turning around to look the other way, the fledge is still on the same branch. Preened a little bit, too, so despite being directly above traffic, she may be planning to stay here a bit. Perhaps I'll wander back into Morningside Park to see if her sibs are around.

7:45 - No one down below except the six geese and the great egret who's been hanging around lately. Time to exit.

7:48 - From corner of Amsterdam Ave. and 112th St., it sounds like there is robin chiriping coming from around the scaffolding on the cathedral's narthex south tower.

7:51 - Robins have definitely been upset about something, but no hawk that I can see. Maybe it was a kestrel?

7/16, Backstop Hawk

Monday

Beautiful day.

5:34 p.m. - Tristan is at the Cathedral, perched up top on Gabriel's horn.

5:53 - After walking arcound south end of Morningside Park, stop at pond to take pictures of the great egret perching within just a few feet of people.

But wait, what's that screeching?

5:55 - Yep, a red-tail fledgling perched in a tree at the bottom of the 116 Steps hill.

Now, who is this? Belly band is not heavy, so it's not Brownie. Could be either Eldest or Youngest.

Not clear whose attention she's trying to get with the screeching. Tristan is still up on the Cathedral roof, but the fledge can see there from here.

6:06 - As jazz band set up by the pond dives into the first chart of a free show for park users (very Basie; the first few tunes sound straight off his April in Paris album), fledge flits over to adjacent tree. Meanwhile, a couple paassing by stops to chat, and one mentions that they saw all three of the fledglings perched together on the near-by baseball backstop a few days earlier. Then the fledge flies up into the trees to the south.

6:18 - After heading up the hill, looking around and then taking the path down to the southwest corner of the park, arrive back on lower level just in time to see the fledgling fly out of the trees and land on the fresh logs, less than ten feet from a couple guys sitting on a bench.

Initially they have no clue she's there, but when she hops down to the ground they realize what's behind them.

6:19 - And then she flies up to perch on the backstop screen.

Lovely location for a photographer to get close and take pix, but the fledgling is pretty backlit from a lot of angles. On the other hand, there are some colorful backdrops from other angles.

She seems to like the spot, and realatively quickly gets used to the sounds from a couple kids practicing batting and fielding on the diamond below.

6:38 - After looking around for 20 minutes, the fledge flies off to the backstop onto ground on the hillside on the other side of the path.

A failed leap for prey? If so, she missed. She does pick somethingup in her beak but decides she doesn't like it, then looks around in consternation. (Well, okay, that's the way they look half the time anyway.)

And glares at a candy wrapper.

6:39 - And then flies back up to the backstop.

6:48 - And another flight down to the ground, looking around some rocks a little further up the hill.

She jogs around a bit, but doesn't move more than 10 feet from where she landed.

6:51 - Back up to the backstop.

6:54 - And then across the park to a tree near the 113th St. entrance.

6:55 - Back to the rockface.

6:56 - And up to the top of a tree to the south.

As I'm angling around for a position where I can get an idea what she's up to up there, I realize there are sounds of "hey, camera guy" coming from a woman letting her dog play on the ballfield. She indicates that there is another hawk perched on apartment building across Manhattan Ave. Sure enough, there's a fledgling on a chimney alongside someone's roof deck at the corner of 112th St.

6:58 - And meanwhile, fledgling number takes to the air again, circles around and up over Morningside Drive, disappears into the cathedral close area, then flies back out and up to perch on the rooftop finial above the statue of St. James the Great.

7:00 - Back to checking in the second fledgling from streetside.

Darkish belly band, so this is probably Brownie.

Unlike the first one, Brownie has a full crop, and a smug look on her beak.

7:08 - Time for me to start heading out. First across the park.

7:11 - Check on fledgling from along Morningside Drive.

7:16 - Definitely a fledgling up there. No switcheroos with an adult.

7:18 - And finally exit.

7/15, Quiet Sunday

Spent around an hour and a half in or about Morningside Park on Sunday evening, a good chunk of it just zoning out on a park bench (albeit one with a good view of the south end of the park), but the hawk fledglings were quiet and apparently in hiding. The most interesting sightings of the day were this butterfly who was hanging about the 111th St. overlook, ...

... an adult hawk who perched on Gabriel's horn up at the Cathedral not long after I reached the area and then flew off 15 minutes later, ...

... and a great egret who landed in the park pond just as I walked up.