Doings At The Fifth Avenue Nest, 2:50 to 4:14pm, Crow Tracks

Many thanks to Hawkwatcher and activist Katherine Herzog who sent in the latest news on Pale Male and Lola...

Hi Donna,

Today, Wed., 3/7/07, visited the Hawk Bench for a while....just before 3pm saw Lola land on the 5th Ave nest. Moments later Pale Male flew on the nest presenting her with a meal of rat. (Of course I'd prefer he give her a "Healthy Choice" meal of squirrel or pigeon...knowing that any rat in the area has a high probability of having consumed a lethal dose of poison which is then passed on to the hawks).

PM flew to the Linda Bldg for a few minutes then flew off as Lola finished off the rat and did some housekeeping...then she sat there, not scrunched down yet as she does when sitting on eggs, sitting high on the nest for about an hour...then after hearing some hawk/seagull-like vocalizations....saw her flying to the Linda Bldg and landed facing toward the window....PM comes flying to her and they vigorously mate....then he flies off and she returns to the nest.

At 21-degrees F, I take off with frozen feet and hands. By their behavior, I believe egg-laying will happen very soon..surely by week's end.
All the best, Katherine


CROW TRACKS

On my way out to the goodie stump today, I was chagrined to see that the crows had slipped in without my seeing them, again. Also a bit mystified as there were three separate landing spots, three converging sets of crow tracks, but converging on what? Besides, did they all land and then stride onward or creep towards whatever it was in mass. An organized crow thing in case it was...what? Or is that how crows do anything that involves a measure of uncertainty? Or is that just how crows share. Everybody who's been invited paces themselves to arrive at the same time?

I'd say the tracks were made by three different crows. Far Right's feet are slightly bigger than Center's and Left weighs less than the other two.

The three sets of tracks converge on a spot that looks to have been excavated. An eatable of some sort?

Ham Sandwiches-Today's Crow Goodies, no takers as of sunset.

The Crows were elusive as usual but today, wonder of wonders here in the land of cheese and snow, I sighted my first Robins of the season. Three of them were busily eating berries off a Mountain Ash down the street. Spring may actually come-maybe.