Pale Male's Swollen Foot, Eldest Takes First Position, and Pip Swallows It Whole

Pale Male's photograph courtesy of palemale.com

I admit it. Since the episode of Violet of Washington Square Park's hugely swollen foot and leg, I find myself automatically scrutinizing Red-tail feet and tarsi.

I was looking at photos of gorgeous angelic Pale Male and eeeeeek! The tarsus and foot of his left appendage are swollen. Not as bad as Violet's thank goodness but certainly bigger than the other side.

Double click the photo above for a larger version and look for yourself. It's his left leg but on the right as you look at the photograph.

My mind immediately flashed on the fact that this is the leg that when sometimes perched on the Linda building he stretches out in front of him with the toes curled in a "fist" and just sits that way for awhile.

Now I'd wondered about that foot before and its strange positioning. I mean he did look very relaxed while doing it. Now I wonder if it eased it somehow? Had I missed a chronic perhaps intermittent condition all this time? He wasn't just relaxing that leg in an odd position for most of the years I've watched him?

I don't know yet but I'm going to try and find out.

Photograph courtesy of Rob Schmunk, Bloomingdale Village blog.
But in the meantime, Rob Schmunk reports that the newest "Eldest" has taken up the Divine nest pre-fledge position for hopping and flapping.

Because of the configuration of the Divine nest site, the eyasses tend to find the best locations within the limited space up there for particular stages of development and as they've chosen well, those locations tend to be the same year after year. As Rob points out the youngest eyass in the group of three is still relegated to the rear area most of the time.

Middle Child will tend to be up near Eldest who is in the pre-fledge position on St. Andrew's hand watching him hop and flap. And may on occasion actually get a chance to use the spot herself when Eldest isn't using it, depending on how long Eldest remains on the nest.

Once Eldest fledges, Middle Child will have first dibs on The Hand, with Youngest looking on.

Eventually Youngest will be up there all by herself and she will not like it.

Why?

Because the main action of the parent's attention will have moved to the trees and to Morningside Park. Oh, Youngest will still be fed well and nurtured, but Isolde will be off the nest much more often than she has been previously, helping Norman with the two that have fledged already.

The last eyass on the nest often but not always makes a decision to fledge, not an accidental swept-off-by-the-wind-exit that may happen to the first eyass. After two have gone Youngest gets the picture that it can be done and if she wants to hang with the family again full time, making the leap is the way to get there fastest.

Oh, and why is the oldest eyass called the newest Eldest? Because when we started out watching the St. John the Divine Cathedral nest, one of the first nestings we watched had two eyasses and they were called Eldest and Youngest. It is interesting how hawk watching traditions concerning a certain nest start, work, and then just--continue.

The best hawk names often say something important about how to identify the holder of the name. With eyasses the names tend toward information about age or size. Unless, of course, like Pip of Washington Square there isn't an issue of telling one from another.

For more about this Divine threesome, click on Rob's link under the photograph above.

Eldest could go off any day now, or last another week and a half. One never does know.


Next up from Robin of Illinois-Pip is now at the stage where she will swallow things whole which rather surprised some watchers of the cam. And I mean a great portion of a whole squirrel for instance.

On occasion this may backfire and the item will be too large and lodge in her throat. Often with the eyass's beak pointed straight up with a portion of the prey sticking out of it.

I remember one instance in which Little of the Trump Parc nest, stood for the longest time after swallowing a complete and fully feathered pigeon wing, with his beak straight up with about 4 inches of a long primary feather jutting up. He was breathing fine, he just couldn't get it down.

It was the first time I'd observed the phenomena and I was horrified that Little would suffacater ore strangle or have so life threatening food mishap. But Charlotte just stood and watched him for what seemed like an eternity before grapping the primary and tugging the whole wing back out for him so he could put his head back into a normal position. Undaunted he immediately did it again.

If this happens to Pip, Violet will allow the stuck prey to stay stuck for some minutes before dragging it out of her throat. There is a lesson to be learned here after all. Some eyasses will just swallow whatever it was whole immediately a second time, upon its removal like Little did. If Pip does this, Violet will then let it stay stuck for a longer period. Eventually pulling it back out, but also eventually the eyass will learn what "too big" to swallow is-- before leaving the nest. Off the nest she won't have the aid of a parent immediately to hand, so it is an important lesson to be learned before taking the big leap.

Watch a feeding in which Pip swallows "it" whole.
http://hawkcam.blogspot.com/


John Blakeman answers many questions about Red-tailed Hawks, in case you missed a chapter here and there. Well worth the read for the new watcher and a refresher for those who may be a bit rusty...

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/121290-hawk-faqs-by-john-blakeman.html

Donegal Browne

And Then There Are TWO! Pale Male's Nest and The Divines

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com

The common wisdom is that hawks are not social animals and therefore show little companionability or what we might call affection towards each other. Not so, at least in this hawk family.

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male arrives with yet more food, another pigeon, for Ginger Lima and his rapidly growing family. He hunts endlessly and brings back portion after portion of prey.

Pale Male takes a momentary breather and the parents then stare down at the eyasses.

If you haven't done so already today, hit the palemale.com link. Lincoln Karim, incredible photographer everyday, is particularly inspired in this days photographs . Plus when you get to the home page, scroll down past the large photo to the first video.

There are a couple of very interesting bits of behavior. One of which I've never seen before. In the first few seconds of the video, Ginger Lima appears to push one of the eyasses back from the edge of the nest with her foot. Yes, her very heavily taloned foot without hurting the little guy one bit. But he does get the message and stays back when she walks the edge of the nest in that direction.

Secondly later in the video, though you can see portions of, and positions of both of the known eyasses, Ginger puts her head down deeper into the nest. Now she may be doing a little clean up of the bowl down there, but it is also possible that she may be giving a third eyass a bite of food.

Keep your eyes open and stay tuned.

Next, a pair of nesting Peregrines double team a young Red-tail, now under medical care- in from Robin of Illinois--

Nesting Falcons drive Red-tail into pavement.

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/buffalo/Statler-falcons-injure-hawk

Photograph courtesy of Rob Schmunk, bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com/

ON TO THE CATHEDRAL NEST OF ST. JOHN THE DIVINE

Bluejays have been harassing the formel, Isolde. She has tried multiple perches and the Jays just won't give it up. According to Rob Schmunk one the chief watchers of this nest, one of the Divine eyasses has been keeping an eye on the whole process. No doubt storing away the visuals for later reference when the same might be happening to her.

Photograph courtesy of Rob Schmunk, bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com/

Big wing stretch! Before long there will be a whole lot of flapping and hopping going on at this nest.

From raptor watcher Jackie Dover, vocalizations on an eagle’s nest plus tandem feeding by both parents--

Hornby Eagles

"This 20-min video shows something that longtime viewers have never seen before on the Hornby nest - both Mom and Dad feeding the eaglets. Just after 4 PM, Mom brought in a HUGE fish head, and Dad brought a smaller one...."

(Mom comes in at 3 minutes 30 sec., and Dad, at 9 minutes 25 seconds. I like the vocalizations at that point.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd5TP43U4p0

Donegal Browne

Redtailed Hawk Update: Chris Lyons at the Fordham Nest, Stella Hamilton oat the Cathedral Nest on St. John the Divine Plus Francois at the Raven's Nes

Photo by Chris Lyons\\
FROM A CHIEF WATCHER OF THE FORDHAM NEST CHRIS LYONS--
The three Fordham eyasses seem to be doing very well, and I'd guess the first fledge will happen this week. First fledge ever out of Collins was on 6/8/06, and subsequent fledges have happened around that time.


Photo by Chris Lyons

Today, for reasons best known to herself, Rose was spending some quality time with her young, instead of the more typical "Here I am, here's your food, gotta fly" routine you see this late in the nesting cycle, with both parents working overtime to feed the almost adult-sized youngsters.

Photo by Chris Lyons
She was there resting on the ledge when I arrived, and stayed for at least another ten minutes--her visit might well have lasted half an hour, or more. Maybe she just wanted to assess their progress, or had some other instinct-driven function to perform--or maybe she was enjoying the chance to hang out with them.

Photo by Chris Lyons
She wasn't actually doing anything, best as I could tell--they didn't need to be beak-fed, or protected, or sheltered from the elements. She was watching her kids pretty intently, while they actually seemed to be much less focused on her (since she had no food). After she flew off, she returned shortly afterward with prey, and departed immediately. No sign of Vince, but he's around.

Photo by Chris Lyons
In a week or less, they'll all be out of the nest. She knows that, even if she doesn't think about it much. What I observed may simply be a way of encouraging them to take the next big step into the world around them. But the simplest explanation is that she did it because she wanted to.

Photo by Chris Lyons
Spot on Chris! I think so too. Thanks so much for the photos and your commentary. It’s grand to have a successful, full nest ready to fledge in town.

Photo by Chris Lyons


Photo by Chris Lyons


Photo by Stella Hamilton
From longtime nest watcher Stella--
Dear Donna,
It seems like our fledgling spent the night on the roof of St. Luke's Hospital. Bruce and I did see one of the parents yards away in one those cylindrical ladders on the roof. We did not see any feeding. Survivor was very active, flapping and running around, but was not begging for food. At. 6:20 pm, Survivor decided to fly back to the Cathedral. Here are some pics. Maybe he wants to go back to the nest to look for some scraps.
Stella

Photo by Stella Hamilton
I found that in the young Red-tails off the nest on County Rd M, that after the first flight they made it their business to get back to the nest for meals. They then found a spot on the nest with good sightlines for maximum exposure of their waiting selves or as there were two of them they began to compete for a branch that was slightly higher than the nest with even better exposure, attempting to be first in line for any food that came in. They made flights in and out of the tree for days. Roosting back in the nest tree as well as taking meals there. They then got the gist of being ready on the side of the tree the adult who has been hunting was likely to come in on. Eventually they began begging from trees further afield but the adults would make them come and get the prey themselves as opposed to a delivery.

Photo by Stella Hamilton
So far no eyass has made it back to St. Andrew as far as I know. They often do get back to the Cathedral itself though. Come to think of it, the Cathedral is the "giant tree" on which the nest resides, so perhaps they're all following a basic Red-tail urge to return to the "nest tree" to be fed.

Photo by Stella Hamilton
Thunder who was hatched on the Tulsa TV tower returned to the nest platform for weeks to get her meals as well.



Photo by Stella Hamilton
Many thanks for the update Stella!

And last but not least, from naturalist and photographer Francois Portmann who's been keeping an eye on the new species in town, the Northern Ravens--


Hi Donna,
The Ravens are "branching"
http://www.fotoportmann.com/birdblog/
Greets
francois


Yea! Jeff Kollbrunner called and told me about some wing disciplining by Mom or Dad Raven with one of the older chicks. I've seen it with Crows and an immature Crow who was stealing food from family members instead of foraging his own. Did you happen to see that sequence on the blog a year or two ago? Three older crows surrounded the bad youth. He flipped on his back in submission, then one of the older crows tugged on his wing until he flew away across the street where they made him stay for awhile..shunned by the flock for bad behavior. :-)

Crows also do foot biting. So watch for both in the Ravens as we now know they do wing tugging they might do foot biting as well.

Donegal Browne

Cowbirds, Chipping Sparrows, Jay and Kay in Tulsa, and Blakeman on Red-tail Eyass Death

Photo by Donna Browne
Two Cowbird Eggs in a Chipping Sparrow Nest-
In the "row" of three eggs on the right, the top and bottom eggs are those of a Cowbird.

Interestingly the eggs photograph with more of a different hue than they appear in life. I had to scrutinize carefully to decide that two were actually different enough in size to be positive the nest was a victim of brood parasitism which seems obvious in the photograph

Year after year the Chipping Sparrows in my Wisconsin neighborhood are parasitized by Cowbirds. Four years ago, there were three pairs of Chipping Sparrows in my and the neighbor's adjoining yards. All three nests were parasitized. For the past two years there has only been one pair of Chipping Sparrows in the area. I became concerned about the parasitism in my own area and also because the Chipping Sparrows I'd watched in the yards of relatives had disappeared altogether.

Chipping Sparrows were previously considered quite common here but with the increase of the Cowbird's range, human depredation of habitat has expanded the Cowbird's range exponentially to the point where the U.S. Park Service is beginning to be quite concerned about their impact on many species not just the uncommon ones.

In fact, in Yellowstone Park, rangers have begun checking nests for Cowbird eggs. When Cowbird eggs are detected the rangers pick the Cowbird eggs out of the nests, shake them vigorously, hoping to addle them so that they don't hatch, and then place them back in the nest. Evidently, disposing of them may sometimes encourage Cowbirds to lay new eggs in those nests.

As we're always talking about how most birds can't count when it comes to eggs, chicks, and the like, (it's also possible that they ordinarily don't care if an extra eyass or duckling for example shows up), then how do Cowbirds know they should lay more eggs? That their eggs are gone?

Do they recognize their own eggs as a species? Is it a spatial recognition of the nest size and brood mother? Whatever the case it appears they know.

Last year I was surprised (And happy, I admit.) that the Chippies weren't raising a Cowbird instead of the there own chicks. I later was told that a neighbor, unnamed, had found the Chipping Sparrow nest, saw a Cowbird egg in it, and removed it. Evidently in that case no Cowbird noticed and laid a new egg or eggs to replace the missing one.

Well this year, I walked past the Clematis on the north side of the house and a little bird flew out and whipped past me. Then it happened again. Aha! A Chipping Sparrow had zipped out. I investigated, and sure enough there was the little neat nest with five eggs, two of which were slightly different colored and the the big clue, two of the eggs were slightly larger than the other three.

Now I'm in a quandary. It is illegal to disturb bird's eggs, and ordinarily against my ethics not to let nature take it's course, except in cases of sick or injured birds for instance, but now I admit, I'm sorely tempted to addle a couple of eggs.

Next up John Blakeman on Eyass Death--



Donna,

Here's the problem, with all of the nests and deaths, I think.

Your perspectives on each of these are tainted by your experiences with Pale Male and the other NYC RTs. In fact, eyass deaths are much more common than the urban nests (in former years) have experienced.

Still, each of these needs and has an explanation. For your rural Wisconsin birds, they mirror the ones I see here in northern Ohio. Pigeons are just never a part of rural red-tail diets. They are too hard to capture in barnyards. The rural birds depend on voles, which were common in pastures. But pastures are gone in Ohio, and ever more infrequent in Wisconsin, with modern dairy practices (or conversion to row-crop farming).

Dependence on voles will produce only one or two eyasses. In row-crop areas like southern WI and northern OH, the only vole habitats are grass margins of roadsides. Makes it tough to feed two or three eyasses when they get larger. I'd bet that starvation or starvation-induced disease is the cause of the eyass deaths. Starvation-induced parasitism can be a factor, with capillaria or other gastrointestinal worms overwhelming the bird.

The presumption that 80 or 90% of the hatched eyasses just ought to fledge isn't realistic. That happens only when everything is perfect, as it once was at 927 Fifth Ave and now, for a second year, at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

But the death of eyasses is rather common in nests with more than one eyass. I've never seen a northern Ohio RT nest with three eyasses. There's just not enough food to support these. The average is about 1.7 eyasses. I think a lot of nests have two eggs, but deaths of the weaker eyass bring down the number at fledging.

It's a lot tougher to raise eyasses than shown by PM and the other famous urban nests. Urban areas have both rats and pigeons (non-native species, as it happens) that provide ample prey. Vole-based red-tail populations have it much tougher, as you are seeing.

This contrasts with Western red-tails, where ample ground squirrel populations in the first half of the summer provide large prey bases. Western nests average between two the three eyasses. But eyass survival difficulties are simply postponed until after fledging, as all of the Western ground squirrel species go into estivation, summer hibernation, during the mid- and late-summer drought periods of these areas. Instead of starving on the nests, as in the East and Midwest, Western eyasses starve after they fledge, being unable to find the now-estivating ground squirrels. They have to turn to voles, which can be hard to capture in the taller herbaceous vegetation of summer.
Weather has no effect on frounce frequency. It's always frounce weather in the windpipes of pigeons. Exposure to cold and rain seems to have no real effects. The down of the eyasses just keeps them warm, even when wet.

And the Riverside nest looked to be a winner, I thought. I was rooting for it, as it was the only typical tree nest in the area. The birds were behaving as real red-tails should. But 70-mile per hour wind bursts can blow out any stick nest.

--John Blakeman

Thanks John, you make a very good point. Not all that many calories in a vole. Gotta nab lots of them. Whereas a pigeon or a chubby rat is a much larger chunk of food with far more calories with a single hunt.

I've still never seen a Mourning Dove go into a nest here. They are much quicker than a pigeon so perhaps just harder for Red-tails to predate.

The M pair were able to raise their two eyasses last season but they not only had the verges of the road to hunt they also had the verges of the railroad tracks on the far side of the field they nested in.



I also saw them feed the eyasses a snake at one point, so skilled and adaptive, and though I never saw bunny go to the nest, last year was a very good year for rabbits here. I rarely could tell exactly what they had as they were secretive and of the prey was small so often voles or little rodents of whatever description.

The summer before, I used to watch one RTH in particular, hunting in a mature cornfield by following the rows at tassel top when I'd drive by, though I never saw an actual kill.

I was concerned when I watched the Cathedral nest this season that Norman wasn't bringing in as much food as was delivered in previous years. If that was actually the case, starvation may have had a hand in the smallest eyass death in particular. Isolde spent far more time off the nest than she had in previous years so some of us surmised she was hunting for herself. She may eventually have taken prey to the nest as well but I don't know of a confirmed observation of that so far.

Best,
Donna

Word from Sally of Kentucky on the Tulsa cell tower nest of Kay and Jay plus the Portland Fire Escape nest--
Kay and Jay of Tulsa have their one eyass busy branching on the cell tower, and so far Portland still has two healthy-appearing eyasses ready to fledge soon, they have been "branching" to the railings and other areas of the fire escape the past few days.
http://www.kgw.com/community/blogs/raptor-cam/KGW-Audubon-Raptor-Cam.html


Photo by Donna Browne
This evening I got a call that the moon had risen more reddish gold then usual though at the time it was likely too low on the horizon for me to see from Rainbow Drive. I went out to reconnoiter and discovered a thin place in the trees and so got a photograph of a "vegetative moon".

Donegal Browne