Saturday, March 09, 2013

Pale Male, Rosie and Bobby of Washington Square Park, Kestrel Nests, Francois Portmann, Franklin Institute Cam is UP, Isolde and the New Guy,


A beautiful photograph of the beautiful Pale Male perched on the roof of The Linda Building courtesy of palemale.com

Washington Square Park Nest- I have confirmation that there is at least one egg, and possibly a second, in the nest of Bobby and Rosie. 

James O'Brien of the Origin of the Species blog, http://yojimbot.blogspot.com/, is collecting the location of the Kestrel nests of NYC.  If you have had sightings, he'd like you to email him with the information, if you'd be so kind,  at  yojimbot at gmail dot com.  James has had an avid interest in the various falcons of NYC for many years.

Birds, Wildlife
Another example, and one I particularly love,  of photographer Francois Portmann's photographs of the waterfowl of Central Park.  If you've not checked it out yet, GOhttp://www.fotoportmann.com/birds/

And as the NYTimes will not be running a hawkcam at Washington Square this season, those who can't get enough hawk nest action in person can tune into The Franklin Institute cam in Philadelphia. It's up and running!   http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-franklin-institute-, hawk-cam  And yes, there is a chat room plus a second camera position which catches all the action from the front when the eyasses are getting ready to fledge.

No word yet as to whether Mama and Papa of New York City will be nesting under the eye of NYCAudubon sponsored hawk cam this year.  Sometimes they do use the cam nest site and sometimes they don't.  When I find out I'll let you know.

2010- Isolde the formel of the Cathedral Nest of St. John the Divine stares into the nest bowl.

As many of you know, Isolde's previous mate, Storm'in Norman is believed to have perished in the hurricane but there have been reports that there is a New Guy in town.

 No news as to whether the nest site behind St. Andrew's elbow is being used this year.  The reason?   This nest is very deep and Isolde very private when she's in it.  

In previous seasons I've spent many, many any hour attempting to catch the top of her head or an eye gleaming between twigs to confirm that the nest was inhabited.  It takes grinding patience to confirm.  So far no one has gritted their teeth and camped out on the sidewalk long enough to spot her,  therefore it may be awhile before we know for sure.

As to Atlas and Andromeda's nest in Astoria Park, Queens, I've just whipped off an email to Jules Corkery, one of their chief watchers, for a status report.

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

4 comments:

Karen Anne said...

Oh, poor Storm'in Norman. What happened?

Sallyls said...

THANK YOU for the updates!!! Any word on the Flushing Unisphere pair? Perhaps they will choose yet another country to nest in this year? :)

Donegal Browne said...

Hi Sally,

Excellent question. I'll see what I can find out about the Unisphere Hawks. They do get around "globally" don't they?

Donegal Browne said...

Karen Anne,

Grand to hear from you. We've no proof one way or the other, except Norman was around before the hurricane and hasn't been since. Plus his mate Isolde has been seen with another male. Therefore we posit that Norman is gone.

Knowing Storm'n Norman though, instead of finding a cozy place to ride out the storm, I can just see him soaring out to fight it. I help imagining that Norman died as he'd lived,in a blaze of glory, taking on all comers no matter, their size, nor "who" they were.

In fact when Isolde chose him as a mate we worried he'd never be able to feed her and the eyasses as he'd no stealth whatsoever. Instead of biding his time looking for the likeliest successful catch in a flock of pigeons, he'd just rush in and flush them all.

In the end though no one starved and he was quite successful in keeping the neighboring crows and falcons at bay.