Nest of Atlas/Athena, Isolde/Norman Sightings, and Emmy Embarrasses Quicksilver

John Timmer and his wife took lovely photos of the Triborough Bridge/Astoria nest before the eyasses turned themselves into fledglings. Not at all an easy nest to photograph, they did a bang up job.

For more-- click on the link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lrhowe/

Astoria Hawkwatcher Lisa P. once again spotted a hawk in the same area as yesterday, though the hawk was not begging and she isn't sure if it was one of the fledglings or one of the adults.

Keep your fingers crossed. If all goes well the Triborough Nest Eyass that went into the care of the Horvaths after fledgling may be released back to his parents on Monday.


2008-Isolde peeks over the edge of the nest on The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine at 113th St. and Morningside.

Rob Schmunk, long time observer and bloggist, http://bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com/ , of Isolde and her mates has an update--

As some of you know, the red-tailed hawks who have nested at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine abandoned that site this spring. The events were pretty mysterious, as only occasional sightings of an adult red-tail in the West 100s and around Morningside Park suggested that they hadn't completely left town.

I am happy to report that both Isolde and Norman have been confirmed to be still in the general area. However, there doesn't seem to be any sign that they successfully nested this season.

Kids from PS 145, the Bloomingdale School, on West 105th St observed hawks in the trees behind the Jewish Home on 106th around Memorial Day. Since then they made several other sightings along the 105th/106th from Riverside Park east to Columbus Ave. Reports of their sightings were passed along by their teacher to hawk- and owl watcher Jean Dane.

I observed both of the adult red-tails for an hour early Saturday evening in the Douglass Houses, the project housing between Amsterdam Ave and Manhattan Ave from 101st up to 104th St. One was very recognizable as the female Isolde. We don't know her mate Norman so well, but the male looked like it was him.

The evening finished with Norman eating a rat on the roof of West Side High School on 102nd St off Amsterdam. (The Douglass Houses are prime rat hunting territory and I have made numerous hawk sightings there over the past few years.) However, during that hour, neither Isolde or Norman behaved In a way to suggest that they had baby hawks to feed or monitor. It is possible that the stress of last year due to renovations on the cathedral roof caused the hawks not to nest this year. But there is also some thought that they did make a nesting attempt somewhere and that it failed, and that a second nesting attempt also failed or did not occur.

They were observed mating in mid April when normally Isolde would have been 3-4 weeks integer sitting, but then mostly disappeared thereafter. As for why they have not been seen at the cathedral much if at all in the past couple months, I have wondered if a seeming increase in crow activity along West 113th St over the past year might be a factor.

rbs

Many thanks Rob, I've been wondering how Isolde and Norman were doing. Okay not just wondering, I have to admit to a little worrying as well. What a relief to know that they haven't abandoned NYC altogether.


Photograph by Samantha Browne-Walters



Emmy the Double Yellow Amazon on the left, Quicksilver the African Grey Congo on the right.


Quicksilver kept saying, "Wanna go outside." So outside we went. And who should we find at the Good and Plenty Cafe but Emmy. Emmy is an entertainer. She says, "Hello Friend" to everyone and when her Dad, Larry, does the toe song, "Little Piggies" Emmy does the Weee weee weee part much to hilarity of the patrons.



Silver on the other hand, the longer he watches Emmy the more boggled he becomes. In fact he begins to look quite freaked out. Emmy sings along with Larry, whereas it seems to me that African Greys in general, Silver in particular, are wired not to talk at the same time as anyone else. He waits for a pause in conversation and then he'll say something. I've begun to think that this singing at the same time thing, seems so ill mannered to him that he suffers from acute embarrassment--a sort of parrot shame, on Emmy's behalf.



Do note though that Silver makes sure he's looking at the camera whenever a photograph is taken whereas Emmy does not. Fascinating the differences between individuals, particularly individuals of different but closely related species.


Donegal Browne