Charlotte of Central Park and a Day of Red-tails--Well, probably.

Photograph by Christine Pittet
Gman of http://www.politicaltruthusa.com/2009/10/new-york-city-red-tailed-hawk-on.html left this comment--

"Check out this Red-Tailed Hawk on Central Park West " with the above link.

I clicked on his link and besides more photos of the Central Park West perched hawk, I found that an anonymous question had come into G man's blog asking if the hawk was Junior or Pale Male?

This hawk is a mature Red-tail, and in the right place but she's very dark and therefore neither Pale Male or Pale Male Jr. Those of you who have been following the doings of the Southern Central Park Hawks, will likely recognize Charlotte.

It's beginning to look like Charlotte may not be nearly as scarce as she often is after nesting season.

And I understand there is some video as well. Stay tuned.




And to the next Red-tail of the day--I was crunched into traffic speeding along just leaving Janesville, the nearest town of any size, when like a boulder out of the sky, a buteo came down hard on some prey, BAM, from a perch on a power line directly above the target and mantled it on the verge of the road. Whoa!

When I finally managed to pull off, and grab my camera I wasn't exactly close. And to add insult to injury, upon attempting to take the picture, I realized I'd left the battery for that particular machine charging on the kitchen counter. (Ever have days like this?) At this point I'd lost my chance for a shot on the verge and the hawk picked up whatever is was she had nabbed and took to her wings. It was heavy and she really had to power flap to get any altitude at all. Just before I turned to grab another camera I saw her even with the left edge of the poison ivy that's gone scarlet at the edge of the cornfield and just above it.

By the time I'd made the grab and turned back around, I'd no idea where she had gone. Not wanting to go too close, this is likely a rural hawk after all and not having binoculars or a scope with me, I just took photos of the trees in hope I could find her when I brought them up on the computer.

If you'd like to take a crack at it, double click on the photo above for a larger version.

Do you see her in the zoom? It took me awhile to decide that what I was looking at was actually a hawk. If you've not found her, quarter the photograph. She is in the upper left quadrant.

She's in this one as well.

Still eating. I can't decide what the prey is. A rabbit?

Also here.

And what is happening here? Are those feathery legs or the prey involved? At first I thought she might be a Rough-legged Hawk, but the breast seems much to light and this camera does insist on veering towards the blue end of things so her back is likely much more of a warm brown then it looks here. I decide Red-tail.

At this point, a pick up almost sideswipes my car, and as I don't even know if there is a hawk in the trees I'm photographing, I decide the better part of valor is to move the car.

My, my...

Well, what have we here? Remember I'd been saying I hadn't seen the Ms for ages? (The Ms being the Red-tailed Hawk pair who nested in the oak in the middle of a field on County Rd. M that we followed on the blog this nesting season.)

Earlier in the day while attempting not to be late for an appointment, I'd spotted a hawk sitting in a bare tree in the treeline adjacent to the field in which the Ms nested. And I noted with interest that even though there were other cars on the road, the RT looked at my car, followed it with her head and then when I passed by actually turned on the branch to continue watching me. Did the hawk recognize the car from earlier in the year?

And now here was a back lit Red-tail also adjacent to the same field, but now on a different tree.

There she is in the top of the tree. Mark her.

This is the actual distance and therefore I couldn't make a positive identification. Note the small tree in the foreground at the side of the road. Go left. See the space without tall trees on the far side of the field? The hawk is in the top of the first tree on the left of the space. I'm also at a slightly different angle than I had been for the previous photographs so take that into account.

Tomorrow I'll check it out again.

Donegal Browne

The Wild Turkeys Take a Drink and Mr. Indepence Goes His Own Way

Though the Cranes have definitely left, the Wild Turkeys are going to be around the area for the duration of winter. The grain field is still attracting them as you can see. And as usual when I stop they don't high tail it out anymore but they do start a mini-migration for the woods.


But things aren't dire enough that a pause isn't made for a drink of water from the rut puddles in the dirt road.


At least for most of them anyway. Look carefully to the left just this side of the tree trunk and you'll see a small hen or poult heading for the woods no matter what the others have decided to do.


Those who are taking their time particularly are the large Toms. They're big guys with definite beards. Beards not being on their "chins" as even if they had chins their heads are naked, but rather the long feathers mid-breast.



Soon everyone is heading north towards the woods except one guy. Who seems to have decided the proper direction is east towards the woods. Is this a sign of independence?


And even as the last of the others head east, Mr. Independence is still going north. I guess he's sick of following whoever is leading.

I'm told by those who've watched turkeys for many years that the hierarchy of the flock is rather strict and the secondary Toms don't really like being secondary all that much.

I mean, who wants to be bossed around ALL the time, right?

So if something untoward, like a turkey hunter, takes out the head turkey it isn't unusual at all for a secondary Tom to run back and hop up and down on the corpse of the former leader.

Something to think about when one catches oneself being bossy, isn't it?

Donegal Browne

P.S. And there has likely been another sighting of Charlotte, mate of Pale Male Jr., of the southern Central Park territory, perched on an overlooking building. More on that in the next post.

Test

Hello Folks,

There seems to be a major error occurring for many who use Blogger at the moment. Yesterday's post didn't publish. This is a test to see if perhaps today's will.

D.B.