Rose and the Fordham Fledges and a Bird Miscellany

Photo by Richard Fleisher
From one of the chief watchers of the Fordham nest of Rose and Vince, Rich Fleisher--
First time on campus in about a week. I spent several hours watching the nest. All three of the young stayed close to the nest doing a great deal of whining.

Photo of Rose by Richard Fleisher

Photo by Richard Fleisher

At about 5 pm two of them took off. One went right to the administration building where it stayed for about an hour before returning to the nest site. The other was much more adventurous as it proceeded to put on quite a show flying around to several of the trees, landing on the ground, trying to attack an adult squirrel, finding a dead pigeon lying in the middle of the road which it picked up and carried to a distant tree where it proceeded to devour its first meal not provided by either Rose or Vince.

Photo by Richard Fleisher
Rose meanwhile put on a belated appearance and proceeded to land on one of the ledges below the Red Tail nest site (where several smaller birds presumably have a nest), stuck her beak into the corner before flying off.

Photo by Richard Fleisher

All in all a great day for photography!! I have attached several photos - more on the Flickr site.

Rich
http://www.flickr.com/photos/profman_wildlife_photos/

It sounds like Vince and Rose have begun the weaning process with more time between feedings so the youngsters will begin going out and making more attempts at hunting, or in the case of the pigeon-- foraging.

I looked up and there was a Great Blue Heron flapping by.

I always smile at their legs and feet just trailing along behind them. But considering the length of the appendage and the fact that they've already got their neck doubled in already trailing seems for the best.

This Robin has just won a "Battle of the Bath" with a Starling which is unusual and he's enjoying every moment.

Well except for the fact that I'm rudely watching.

Silver says, "Bye, see you later".

(Still loads to come from our contributors. Plus when I took a wrong turn and while turning around, looked over at a cow on the other side of the road in a bit of pasture and a calf fell right out of her!)

Donegal Browne

The Fordham Eyasses Do Jimmy Cagney from Chris Lyons

ALL PHOTOS BY CHRIS LYONS

From Chris Lyons a major watcher of the Fordham nest gives us a White Heat Red-tail update--
I'd been away from the campus for the better part of four days, and wasn't sure what I'd find when I got to Collins Hall this morning--I saw just one eyass on the ledge of the pediment, and looked around vainly for any sign of fledges. Quite possible all three were in there, and only one was visible. I went back to work, figuring I'd try again at the end of the day.

It was almost 5pm when I returned, and I saw a very different scene--and something I hadn't witnessed at Collins for several years--and when I do, it always reminds me of Jimmy Cagney in "White Heat."

Movie refs aside, it's hard to be sure how far along this youngster is with the flying lessons. Showed no propensity for flight while I was watching, and actually slipped off the top of the world several times, disappearing from sight in the process--but kept climbing back up again.

It's going a little more slowly than I thought last week--of course, it's hard to be 100% sure that none of the young have left the nest and then come back again. But I'm thinking this one is the first out, and quite possibly took the dive yesterday, or this morning, and then managed to get high up enough on a nearby tree to flap up to the roof, close to the comforting presence of his or her siblings (and of course in the vicinity of where the food has always been dropped off).

They don't actually climb out of the pediment, best as I can figure. In the early stages of flight school, they do like to use the roof of Collins as a practice runway.

All three look very healthy, and my only worry is that after they're flying, they'll get too close to the continuing construction project on the new dorms, over by Webster Ave, a few hundred yards to the west of Collins. Still enough work going on there for that to be dangerous for naive young hawks. But those buildings are nearly completed now (the first occupants are slated to move in this September), and based on past observations, Rose tries to herd her kids in a more easterly direction, towards Edwards Parade and Keating Hall.

I saw squirrels foraging directly below Collins Hall today--while they might be safe from Vince and Rose there, because adult hawks have their prey drive switched off when in proximity to their nests--they better watch out for young Cagney here. And heaven help any dirty rats that show up--they're gonna get rubbed out, see? Top of the world, ma!

There is no question that the Fordam nestsite is arguably the most eyass friendly site in the city. And in a year where many eyasses have been lost Rose and Vince have so far shepherded their brood very skillfully and a big part of that is location, location, location-- which includes an obviously deep prey base.

Much more to come from the email box, not up to full speed health-wise quite yet but I'll get there. Lots of goodies on the pad waiting to be launched from Jeff Kolbrunner with some photos of behavior I'd asked about in Ravens, Cathy Horvath with the answers to my many duckling questions, Cheryl Cavert with the Kay and Jay Tulsa report, Francois will no doubt reappear again soon, and many others with updates and curious offerings as well!

D. B.