A Pale Male Report and Why Do the Play Patterns of Young Squirrels and Young Nuthatches Look So Similar?

 Photo courtesy of palemale.com

Pale Male, the ever diligent Dad, with a pigeon, Columba livia, which will help feed his family for the day.

Today's Pale Male Report, from longtime correspondent and now blog contributor Jeff Johnson--

Ms Browne,

Two fledges were in the Park on Cedar Hill just north of the Sailboat Pond at 1800 today. [6:00PM, D.B.] I got a few frames of one with a whopping big meal.

I'd not seen any interaction with either of the parents, but it's difficult to believe that the fledge caught it. It would be master hunting skills developed overnight !

From the size and tail feathers I think it was a Rock Pigeon.

Just behind the fledgling you can see a Blue Jay about to hassle him/her. Blue Jays and Sparrows were really giving the fledgling fits. Their harassment was dedicated and persistent so that the fledgling dropped the meal onto the walkway underneath its perch after about fifteen minutes.

When bystanders couldn't be persuaded to stand away, Lincoln Karim picked the fledgling's meal up and moved it to a more remote spot where it would retrieve it.

 I had to depart scene before the fledge reclaimed its meal, but I'm sure it happened.

Jeff

Many thanks Jeff, we can't wait to see the photos!

 Next up, like many of you I've been watching juvenile passerines come to my feeders for years and though I've often seen adult White-breasted Nuthatches feeding, not until today have I observed the juveniles attempting to figure out how to access sunflower seeds from the wire feeder.

Initially I was so fascinated by the antics I didn't even go grab my camera for fear of missing something.

Young Nuthatch was climbing up and down the feeder in the manner he'd use a tree-- up, down, poke, poke.  Forget those handy dandy perches.  Then he'd stick his beak in and instead of pulling the seed out and then eating it, he was attempting to shell it and swallow with his bill still inside the feeder.

Then to add insult to injury, another juvenile, typical of sibling squirrels, jumped out of the air at the original one and they both took off for the high branches of the adjacent Maple.  

Where they each took a place about a foot apart on a branch and continued the game of Jump At The Sibling.  Sibling 1 jumps in the air at Sibling 2 who veers off and and then jumps back at Sibling 1 who jumps back.  Very similar to the antics of young squirrels.  Interesting.

After that sequence, they then chased each other up and down the trunk of the tree.  Also very squirrel-like.  Weird to have young mammals and young birds playing such a similar "game".

Then it struck me.  Not strange at all!  Both species spend a great deal of their lives rapidly perambulating  up and down on the bark of trees often with their heads in the lead.

Similar activity in species,  even those who are two footed with wings and those with four feet and no wings in different branches of the animal kingdom, can lead to similar "play" in their young.

Wow.

You just never know when you'll discover that what  may seem odd in the beginning, ultimately turns out to make perfect sense once you, attend to it and don't discount the similarity just because the creatures are in different man made categories .

But we knew that.  Sometimes we just have to be reminded yet again that attending can fill our lives with wonder.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male and Zena's Fledgling Assisted by Lincoln Karim, Doorstep Dove and Friends New Youngsters, Plus Isolde and Norman's Fledglings in Morningside Park

                    Photo by Jeffrey Johnson
Jeffrey Johnson, a contributor to the blog whom I met at the Wild New York City Symposium has a piece on author and original Pale Male watcher Marie Winn's Website about Lincoln and one of the Fifth Avenue fledglings.

http://mariewinnnaturenews.blogspot.com/

 
Doorstep Dove and Friend as I reported earlier have fledged three youngsters in this clutch.  Not extremely rare for Mourning Doves to lay three eggs but two eggs per clutch is the far more common number.

Here are photos of the two more mature fledglings.  The third who came off the nest slightly less mature is spending more time hiding in cover then flying except when she absolutely has to.  The other two tend to perch in sight, so we'll wait for a photo of number 3.

When I accidentally  flushed two of  Doorstep's Trio out of the garden, One took off toward the old TV antenna.

Two lifted off from the garden and came down on the short log wall that borders the yard's boundary from the park, about 12 feet away from me.  She looked at me and I at her.  She then bobbed her head at me and I bobbed back. We went back and forth  much as her mother had originally done as a first year bird though she was older as it was winter and she snuggled up to my patio door when it was cold.

  How old is Doorstep now?  I do believe we've been bobbing at each other for six years now.   

Perhaps this little dove will continue the tradition.

Photo by Rob Schmunk

And what about Isolde and Stormin' Norman's fledglings up at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine? 

 Needless to say, young Red-tails aren't the least bit popular with their bird neighbors, ever.  In  fact bird's scolding is a common way for watchers to find raptor fledglings but somehow the bird neighbors in Morningside Park have always seemed the loudest and most raucous when it comes to giving young Red-tails a piece of their mind   Check out Rob Schmunk's blog--

Even Paranoids Have Enemies

 

Happy Hawking

Donegal Browne

Pale Male and Zena, Osprey Cam Action, Doorstep Dove is FOUND, and Canada Goose Alert!

 Photo courtesy of http//www.palemale.com/
One of Pale Male and Zena's fledglings, watches for "prey", which includes rocks and twigs at this age, from behind a leaf.  Good thing, she's still getting the real thing from her parents.  Look at that bulging crop! 


Having raptor cam withdrawal in those spare moments in between updates,  now that most Red-tail eyasses have turned into fledglings?

Here is one I just discovered today.  AND as I've never watched Ospreys in the field, the learning curve is fascinating plus I have questions, questions, questions...

http://explore.org/#!/live-cams/player/live-osprey-cam
That's vigilant mom on the left and there are three eyasses napping in the bowl of the nest.

Dad shows up with a still flopping fish.

Mom gets fish and stops the flopping.  Dad keeps an eye peeled.

Mom pulls the fish up onto her handy dandy staging area/orange netting and starts working on the fish.  The eyasses begin to show some signs of life.

 Mom begins to feed and as the eyasses become more active it is apparent that ospreys have asynchronistic hatching.  The is a rather large size variation compared to Red-tails who's young most often hatch in a day of each other.  In this case they come in large, medium, and small.  Interestingly though Large and Medium were first up to be fed, before long Small managed to tumble Large back somehow in a scramble and got an even share.  Spunk counts.  Dad keeps watch.

Then dad is off as feeding continues.  Note Large is to the right of the perpendicular stick.  Medium is center above Small.  And Small, with the lighter feathers and open beak is about to get the next bite.


Here is one of my questions.  See the square item?  Follow  the perpendicular stick from the bottom of the photo up.  That looks like a rock but it appears to be placed on top of other nesting material.  I don't know that Ospreys carry rocks to their nest and in any case it would appear to be too heavy for them even if they did.  Perhaps a remnant of Styrofoam?

Next up Robin of Illinois also had a pair of mallards visit her feeder. Here's a recap--

About 5 years ago I had a mallard pair come to my yard and gardens, two years in a row. They would come in late April and come daily, and then disappear in mid-May. The second year, in early May, we had a tornado 1/4 mile from my house, and I've not seen the pair since. I hope they fled the area in advance of the storm. The second year a juvenile was often seen accompanying them. The first year, another male tried to steal Mrs Mallard away, and the males duked/dueled it out on the wide park-like area behind my house. I watched with bated breath and great fascination. By the way, the home team won.

I wasn't the only one who was fascinated and delighted with them. Neighbors would watch out their windows, slow their cars as they passed my yard if the ducks were in it, and sometimes sneak around in the bushes furtively to watch them as well.

Doorstep Mourning Dove finally appears again!

I admit it. I was worried.  Yes I know it's nesting season and hens have to stick to the nest pretty closely but I hadn't seen Doorstep for weeks and weeks.  Then the other day, after I'd seen a clutch of three newly fledged Mourning Doves being herded into the Big Nest by Friend and then I saw Friend, Doorstep's mate sitting on the bird bath watching the sunset without her--  I really got worried.  Yes she'd likely be laying a new clutch but ordinarily she helps Friend for a day or two with the youngsters before beginning to sit again.

Then I looked out on the feeding floor and saw a petite Mourning Dove with a slight ruffle to her posterior feathers pecking away.  Poor thing she's practically sleeping on her feet.

She heard the camera and looked up completely aware.  I bobbed my head.  She bobbed back...  It IS her!!!!  Alive and well.

 And then she went back to eating with her eyes at half mast.  Raising a threesome can really take it out of a girl. 

ALERT!!
Once again this year Canada Geese will be rounded up in New York City's Parks and killed.  The USDA chooses this time of year because Canadian Geese are at their most vulnerable.  They are in molt, often flightless, and have goslings.    Beyond planned protests, Goose Watch needs you to help document these activities.
http://www.goosewatchnyc.com/