2/7, Trespass

Sorry for the lack of posts. I haven't been able to get out on weekends to look for hawks, so the only one I'd seen in the past few weeks was a red-tail I spotted along Broadway between 102nd and 105th the middle of last week. But with the sun setting later I can now get over to Morningside Park to look around at the end of the afternoon.

No luck yesterday, but today while walking by the Morningside Park ballfields at 5:00 I looked up to see a red-tail quietly perched just ahead.

Belatedly I realized there was another almost directly overhead.

There seemed to be a size difference, so I initially thought the first one...

...was Tristan and the second Isolde.

Six or seven minutes later the first one flew off to the north, and while I was tracking its progress the other quietly disappeared another direction. I found the first one again just where I expected, perched in one of Tristan's favorite roosting trees over the playground. But wait, its shoulders are dark, this is Isolde.

She changed trees a couple times. After 5:20 it was getting dark in the area and I figured Isolde would stay where she was and roost for the night. Time for me to leave.

But wait! The fun was about to begin. Just when I got back to the corner of Morningside Drive and 113th, I realized there was a hawk flying over the upper lawn of the park. It headed south and then hooked over the street and landed on the cross atop St. Savior chapel.

And again belatedly I realized there was another hawk in the area. About 40-50 feet away on a branch directly over the center line down Morningside Drive was this girl looking toward Isolde (?) on the cross.

Barely had I taken that picture then the hawk on the cross jumped off, flew up toward the nest and... a third hawk popped out and the two of them flew around the cathedral apse and into the close. Whoa, three hawks. So assuming two of them are Tristan and Isolde, then there's one interloper. And indeed, the hawk still perched over Morningside Drive is not one of the cathedral couple. It has a very dark belly band, and despite the poor light it's apparent it has barring on the tail and light eyes: a juvie.

But were the two who disappeared around the corner really Tristan and Isolde?

Again I prepared to leave, but this time I spotted an adult red-tail alighting in a treetop north of 113th near the dog run and another one disappearing into the trees nearby. A minute later what seems to be the second one flew back up at the one perched, and they both took off south over the upper lawn in what looked like a chase-off. The red-tail kept going south and the second one turned back and disappeared near the dog run. Hey, that second hawk looked kind of small and skinny. Was that the Cooper's who has been hanging around Morningside Park lately?

At 5:35, the juvie red-tail was still perched over Morningside Drive but the light was almost completely shot. I left, my head buzzing with questions about what had just transpired and how many hawks were involved. Three? Four?

P.S.: I wonder if the juvie with the heavy belly band was this juvie seen over the north end of Morningside Park during James's bird walk in late November.

1/20, Brrrrrr

On a quick jaunt into Central Park on a late afternoon on a frigid day, I though I'd try to get a glimpse of one of the owl pairs about. I couldn't find the long-eared owls near the Great Lawn, but while in that area spotted a red-tail soaring about to the south. A moment later again a red-tail soaring, this time heading straight for the Beresford. At 4:36 I took a couple pix of the tower showing either Palemale or Lola. Why either? Because four minutes later both of them were up there, as shown in the pic above. I didn't catch the second arrival.

Headed back to the north end of the park to see if I might see the eastern screech owls at fly out. No owl luck there either. One dedicated birdwatcher was already there and seemed very concerned that she hadn't seen them. Around 5:20 she though might have heard one of them calling, but with my hearing I didn't catch the sound.

Exit the park and head to family dinner. Hmmm, lasagne followed by pumpkin pie and watching the Giants win the NFC championship game. Definitely a fine night.

A Christmas Walk

This is the only guy in a red suit that I saw on Christmas Day.

The niece and nephew are now teen-agers, which means opening presents on Christmas is now a noon event. So I spent a couple hours of the beautiful morning checking out the north end of Central Park and Morningside Park to see if any of the raptors were up and about. But despite scanning the skies and all of Tristan and Isolde's usual perches, there was no sign of red-tails. The above cardinal and the sparrow below were the only birds that I took decent pix of.

The cardinal was perched very quietly near the Blockhouse, which did make me wonder if there might be a raptor about. Perhaps so, as James watched two Cooper's there a few hours later.

But it wasn't a complete raptor bust for me. At the very end of my walk, when I was up on Morningside Drive, I looked down to the cellular antenna structure on the roof of 306-8 West 112th and spotted a kestrel. It was too far for good pix, but they were good enough to reveal the right shape, size and coloring.