New York City Ravens, and Orelia, the Screech Owl

www.jknaturegallery.com/

From Jeff Kollbrunner--the Raven's Nest....
Donna,

Here are two more images showing the Queens, NY Raven nest. The photos are two different angles of the same nest. This is now the fourth nest the Ravens have started it looks to be the one they will complete and the best of the four. They are constructing it on the same level as the other three, this one however is on the Southerly side of the water tower and provides great light for photography. The other three attempted nests were all in the shadow of the water tank itself and on the northerly side. It is clear that they were able to find a spot that they can attach their branches to much better than the previous attempts and progress is now being made. This afternoon while I was there with my camera the Ravens were not around, of course when I visited briefly this morning without a camera one of them was present.

As for Mama and Papa, they continue to finalize their nest in the white pine tree. This morning they were on the nest and of course at that time I didn't have my camera with me as with the Ravens. This afternoon they were off in the far distance relaxing on top of some very tall apartment buildings well out of camera range. They have been copulating now for a number of weeks and will soon overnight in the nest. Last year Mama started to overnight on February 28th we will see what she will do this year.

All the best,
Jeff

If memory serves, Mama and Papa tend to have an earlier hatch than some other pairs in the city. Last year they hatched three eggs, one eyass died on the nest, one disappeared possibly due to Great Horned Owl predation and the third fledged successfully and even managed to make it back to the nest after fledging. Last year was very tough on eyasses all over the area.

Red phase Screech Owl

A few days ago, I got an email from Jane of Georgia and she mentioned it appeared that an owl had taken to her box. I immediately asked if we might have a photo of the Screech and I'm hoping she'll keep us updated on Orelia's owl adventures. Her first hurtle is taken care of with the possession of a "cavity".

Hi Donegal –

Thanks for your interest in my new owl. Here is a snapshot of little Orelia, my screech owl. She has apparently (and lucky for me) decided that my owl box is a great “seasonal rental”. I put the owl box up three years ago, and just like that (J), here she is! I’ve seen her at her door like this both at dawn and dusk, I have not seen a male around and have not heard any screeching calls. This is my first real experience with an owl in my back yard, so I have a lot of reading up to do!

(Since she has been here only three days or so, this is as close as I wanted to get to her. As the days go by, I’m hoping she gets more accustomed to me being around her and I’ll be able to get some better pictures.)


Jane
(I live just north of Atlanta)

What Is She Doing To Pale Male? Just What Are the Two Pales Up To? Plus Doorstep and Friend Soak Their Feet

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
12:43:35PM

What is she doing to Pale Male?

Now I've never seen one Red-tailed Hawk preen another. Not even the mom's preen the young as far as I know. Not even the tops of their heads which is a prime spot for another bird's help to get the sheath off a new feather as obviously your beak can't reach the top of your head.

Certainly many other species do it but Red-tailed Hawks though affectionate in their own Red-tail kind of way aren't exactly full time snugglers or preeners. They're more into sitting companionably together a few feet apart after copulation, or roosting even more feet apart but in the same tree sometimes for sleeping.

I did see Pale Male Jr. "kiss" Charlotte once as he was leaving the nest one day. He was taking off from one side of the nest and instead of heading off in that direction which would be usual, Junior flew past Charlotte who was standing on the other side of the nest, and they touched beaks. He then shifted around in the air and went off to do his business. Jeff Kollbrunner of jknaturegallery ,who watches Mama and Papa said he's seen them "kiss" several times.

Is the isolated preen so rare I've just missed it? Maybe. But Pale Male is all scrunched down and doesn't really look like he's enjoying having her beak in his feathers above his left eye.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
12:43:47PM
In fact it looks like he's telling her to knock it off by vocalizing. Double click on the photo and check out Pale Beauty's expression. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Isn't she looking at him as if he's good enough to eat? Actually now that I've looked at it again and I'm thinking about it. Eyasses sometimes give their siblings that look, when they are about to jump on each other and play and they have been known to nibble at each other a bit. Hard to tell what eyasses are thinking but as they are young I always took it as a form of play. Now the two Pales have been out there cavorting in the air courting, and Beauty is young and heavily jazzed up hormonally, so perhaps she's not totally sure what to do with how she feels right now. And in the typical Red-tailed Hawk way, when they have an urge, they try things one after the other in order to try and satisfy that urge until one works.

Hence Pale Male telling her that it may work for her but it is definitely not working for him. These particular photographs do show the reverse sexual dimorphism in size very well.

When everyone knows what they are doing on the nest, the nest boss is the female. Pale Male being plucky, experienced. and having had to train young mates before likely knows that there are some things that just have to be nipped in the bud before they become a habit, no matter where you are and I suspect pinching his eyebrow is one of those things. He isn't reticent to speak up when necessary as you can see.

Watching the two birds meld to each other habits, divide the chores as to who does what, and when should be absolutely fascinating this season.

For those who don't know, all the Red-tailed Hawk pairs I've watched divide up the chores in slightly different ways. At the Cathedral Nest of St. John the Divine, every evening Tristan would take the last feeding of the day, stripping bits of meat off the prey and gently dispensing it while Isolde took a break sitting on a roof as the sun went down. Isolde's new mate, Storm'n Norman, has more of a tendency to practically throw the prey at the nest and zoom off if he can get away with it.

Pale Male Jr. on the other hand is quite attentive and will feed the eyeasses if he happens to be there when they wake up and Charlotte is out but he doesn't have a particular schedule as Isolde and Tristan did uptown.

From what I've been told Pale Male seldom if ever feeds the eyasses when they are small but he does do a tremendous amount of hunting and brings prey to the nest in abundance.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Photo: Donna Browne

And as evening fades in, there are Doorstep Dove and Friend in the bath warming those feet up before going to roost.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male Bangs Windows, and the 1 Police Plaza Hawk Is Back

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male sees his reflection in the window and goes for it with his extremely strong feet. BANG! At this point in the season he is so testosteroned out that he does a lot of this, which has to be a bit startling for the residents inside the apartments. Eventually you'll see many of the blinds go down on Fifth Avenue during the season at certain times of day when the reflection is most likely to catch his eye.

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male scopes the area from one of his favorite perches on the Linda Building. Note that today the blinds are closed and will likely remain closed for some months when no one is actively looking out the window.

In fact I've watched from the Hawk Bench as residents of Linda slowly approach an open blind from the side and gently pull it down as Pale Male sits on the wrought iron outside the window.

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male's Mate eyes a Robin. This Robin perched in the tree is not likely to be in much danger but I have seen Pale Male nab an unsuspecting Robin on the ground by flying in behind it..

Our hawk watching buddy Bill, down at 1 Police Plaza, after keeping an eye peeled for ages, has finally spotted the local hawk yet again.

Well I finally saw the hawk behind 1 Police plaza. All I had was my cell phone and it takes crappy pictures.

Anyway this guy/gal looked kind of small, but it was 30 feet in the air so who knows. Feasting on a pigeon. Didn’t seem the least bit concerned that an audience had formed.

Just thought I would forward it to you

Be well

Bill

I love the fact that people were interested enough to form a crowd and also that she (that's the universal "she", I don't know this bird's sex) was human habituated enough to enjoy her squab while being watched.

Which brings up another topic-

As a majority of you know, many an urban Hawk eats pigeons as a mainstay of their diet as does their young. Four years ago I did a study in Central Park and the Central Park hawks diet consists of 80% pigeon. When the pigeon flock fails due to lack of food, the hawks might be hungry enough to eat a dicey rat, (possibly poisoned) which ordinarily they'd only consider eating a nice healthy one. Therefore it would be nice if when eating lunch outside for instance, you might accidentally make sure the pigeons have some lunch too.

Though do absolutely make sure the food is all gone before dusk. The rats do just fine on their own when it comes to food. They have the capacity to rip open the thousands of plastic trash bags left on curbs and feast. Urban pigeon flocks often depend on direct feeding from humans to survive.

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

Pale Pale and Pearl/Paula/PB Copulate! It's Eggnant Time Again...

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
02/20/2011 Pale Male and P copulate on the top of the grate above the warm chimney of the Oreo Building.

If you're wondering what eggnant means, here is how this Central Park Hawk watcher descriptive term started.

One day, I believe in 2005, the first season after the nest had been destroyed and rebuilt, many hawk watchers were standing around the Hawk Bench trying to decide when the late and beloved Lola would lay her first egg of the season.

A female Red-tail as the span of copulation days draws her nearer to laying eggs begins to look heavier not only physically but also in her behavior. She begins to look, well, sort of hormonal, which no doubt she is. She tends to perch, feathers a touch ruffled, not looking as alert as usual, not nearly as ready to leap off a ledge to chase an intruder as she had been a few weeks before, nor even hunt for herself. Lola had truly begun to look--whatever this was. When long time watcher of Pale Male and his mates, Stella Hamilton, burst out spontaneously, "She looks eggnant!"

Immediately chorused by eggnant? Yes! Eggnant, that's exactly it!

From then on the descriptive term for that heavy, still, earthbound hormonal look in a female Red-tail has been expressed by a much simpler term than the previous long string of adjectives as just-- EGGNANT.

Therefore now that copulation has started, the next milestone in Red-tail season is the laying of the first egg, which is cued by eggnancy in the female.

Do remember that as no human has a view of the bowl of the Fifth Avenue nest, we've not real idea when the first egg actually is laid in the nest.

Traditionally the hawk watchers, bereft of any other signal that an egg has been laid, start the day count for a future hatch, the next milestone, from the date of the first night the female sleeps on the nest.

It is quite conceivable that there is actually no egg in the nest when the first night is undertaken. Or even that it doesn't take a day or two for an egg to appear, but as there is no other signal to start the count, the first overnight has to do.

Courtesy of palemale.com

2/21/2011

Central Park Bird Watcher Amy Bateman reports that earlier today, just as she was walking on the sidewalk of Fifth Avenue on her way to the park, she heard this amazing, loud, caterwauling above her, looked up, and there was Pale Male copulating with P, his new mate, on the corner of the roof of the Linda building.

Note P's expression above. Obviously Pale Male has not lost his verve in that department in any way. (That's a joke.)

You may have been wondering why I am calling Pale Male's current mate, P?

Marie Winn of mariewinnsnaturenews.blogspot.com/ , author of Red-tails in Love, has been calling Pale Male's mate, Pale Beauty. A number of the readers of this blog found that name lovely but too cumbersome in it's multi-syllable-ness and vastly preferred the name Pearl, a reference to her luminous paleness.

Whereas, as of yesterday, www.palemale.com/ began to call Central Park's First Female, Paula.

Fascinating that all the names begin with P, isn't it?

Until things settle out or the dust settles as is sometimes the case, on what she will be called, I suppose I could call her Three P or Triple P.

But when it comes to the least key strokes, P is the easiest to type, hands down. And the least likely to get people throwing brickbats, metaphorical or otherwise, at me.

Considering my current situation in Wisconsin, I've enough on my plate without brickbats. Speaking of which I'll be back in NYC for some days in the end of March and the beginning of April.

I can't wait.

Donegal Browne

PALE MALE AND PALE BEAUTY TALONS DOWN AND IT'S NOT JUST THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE--URBAN HAWKS ABOUND IN PHILADELPHIA

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male and Pale Beauty in a courtship flight.

Red-tail literature says that when a Red-tail pair have their talons hanging down that they will finish the flight with copulation. We have seen in Central Park that that is not necessarily the case but it does mean that copulation could happen any day or even any minute now.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male always a great bringer of twigs, heads for the nest with still another. I'm hoping that this year there will more twigs placed at the bottom of the bowl, instead of just fresh nest lining, just in case cold in the bowl has been a problem with the previous failed nests. Plus selfishly, if the bottom of the bowl is raised by multiple inches we will again be able to see the head of the hawk sitting on the eggs.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Now isn't this a demure, flirtatious but pointed look from Pale Beauty?

Photograph courtesy of philly.com
A juvenile Red-tail has a pigeon dinner atop a parked car in downtown Philadelphia.

I was particularly interested in the following article talking about urban hawk antics and their booming population in Philadelphia. Specifically in Center City, where I lived in the '80's.

Not only did I live in Center City, currently the haunt of hawks, but daily I went uptown to Temple University with it's expanses of big scattered trees and lawns, habit typically partial to hunting Red-tails, when I was in their graduate program- Not once did I see a hawk of any description. Nor did I see one when I crossed Rittenhouse Square every day for six months to act in a play in a theatre on the other side of the Square from where I lived. Peter O'Toole in evening dress, I saw in the Square, he gave me a little bow and a very charming smile, but not one bird of any species with talons

THINGS HAVE DEFINITELY CHANGED!

City's new pastime: Talon shows

Hawks' rebound = downtown dining.

By Inga Saffron

Inquirer Staff Writer

It was just another Center City killing, except it happened in broad daylight and a crowd gathered to watch. An adolescent red-tailed hawk landed on the roof of a black car near Eighth and Market, sank its talons into a pigeon, and proceeded to chow down.

Feathers and entrails flew. Video phones were deployed. Bystanders groaned. The bird, unfazed, kept eating.

Then, having finished its meal, the hawk flew to a nearby lamppost for a postprandial nap, leaving the returning motorist to deal with the bloody pulp and fluff scattered atop the car.

That close encounter with nature - red in tooth and claw, and vividly captured on a YouTube video - was certainly dramatic, but such hawk sightings are no longer rare in Philadelphia.

So many YouTube videos document hawk kills in the city that they practically constitute a genre. Besides recording the mayhem on Market Street, humans have filmed hawks in mid-bite in Rittenhouse Square, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's sculpture garden, and in the yards of Bella Vista rowhouses. One local bystander narrowly missed becoming collateral damage when a large redtail dived for a squirrel outside the museum. The squirrel got away.

One reason for the run-ins with redtails is that raptor populations have made a remarkable comeback in the last five years, and they've done so, ornithologists say, by moving into downtowns. Once a habitué of North America's grasslands, hawks have discovered that cities are safe places to raise a brood, and they offer a 24-hour smorgasbord of pigeons, rats, and squirrels.

"We have a pretty good view of Logan Square, and we see them hunting all the time," said Dan Thomas, who manages the bird collection for the Academy of Natural Sciences. Not long ago, he added, a colleague went to fetch the academy's van from the alley behind the museum only to discover a Cooper's hawk enjoying a pigeon on the roof.

There was a time when a person couldn't get within 10 yards of a hawk kill, said Kevin McGowan, a scientist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. That may still be the case in rural areas. But as hawks settle in cities, they've grown more accustomed to people.

The fact that a bird would even allow people to watch it eat, McGowan said, suggests...

For more, including comments in the article by our own hawk expert John Blakeman, click the link.

It was just another Center City killing, except it happened in broad daylight and a crowd gathered to watch. An adolescent red-tailed hawk landed on the roof of a black car near Eighth and Market, sank its talons into a pigeon, and proceeded to chow down.

Feathers and entrails flew. Video phones were deployed. Bystanders groaned. The bird, unfazed, kept eating.

Then, having finished its meal, the hawk flew to a nearby lamppost for a postprandial nap, leaving the returning motorist to deal with the bloody pulp and fluff scattered atop the car.

That close encounter with nature - red in tooth and claw, and vividly captured on a YouTube video - was certainly dramatic, but such hawk sightings are no longer rare in Philadelphia.

So many YouTube videos document hawk kills in the city that they practically constitute a genre. Besides recording the mayhem on Market Street, humans have filmed hawks in mid-bite in Rittenhouse Square, on the University of Pennsylvania campus, in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's sculpture garden, and in the yards of Bella Vista rowhouses. One local bystander narrowly missed becoming collateral damage when a large redtail dived for a squirrel outside the museum. The squirrel got away.

One reason for the run-ins with redtails is that raptor populations have made a remarkable comeback in the last five years, and they've done so, ornithologists say, by moving into downtowns. Once a habitué of North America's grasslands, hawks have discovered that cities are safe places to raise a brood, and they offer a 24-hour smorgasbord of pigeons, rats, and squirrels.

"We have a pretty good view of Logan Square, and we see them hunting all the time," said Dan Thomas, who manages the bird collection for the Academy of Natural Sciences. Not long ago, he added, a colleague went to fetch the academy's van from the alley behind the museum only to discover a Cooper's hawk enjoying a pigeon on the roof.

There was a time when a person couldn't get within 10 yards of a hawk kill, said Kevin McGowan, a scientist at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y. That may still be the case in rural areas. But as hawks settle in cities, they've grown more accustomed to people.

The fact that a bird would even allow people to watch it eat, McGowan said, suggests...

For more, including comments in the article by our own hawk expert John Blakeman, click the link.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/116550778.html?cmpid=15585797

HAPPY HAWKING!
Donegal Browne

Mama and Papa Red-tail, the Nesting Raven Pair in NYC, and the Blackwater Eagles

Jeff Kollbrunner, of www.jknaturegallery.com/ a major watcher of Red-tailed Hawk pair Mama and Papa, and last year's single NYC nesting Raven pair has sent his first missive of the new season .

Some updates from Queens, NY. We visited the Ravens nest a few days ago to sadly discover it has been removed from the steel water tower. This must have happened recently, during our treks to search for Mama and Papa over the winter we could see the Raven nest from a distance and the last time we noticed it as best we can remember was about 4-6 weeks back. There are cell repeaters on the water tower and the nest was located next to one of these devices. We can only assume since it was high up, difficult and dangerous to access the cell maintenance folks must have removed it at some point. The Ravens were very vocal as they attempted to rebuild a new nest one level higher on the tower. Unfortunately, their branches were falling off the steel beams as there were no cables to anchor their branches.


Yesterday (Friday) we visited the nest site again, they started two more locations on the tower each more successful than the previous. The third location seems to be taking shape but very strong winds in NY today have done some damage and the size of the nest is reduced by about 30 percent since yesterday and the Raven pair was not present this afternoon. Hopefully they get back to work when the wind diminishes and can complete this new nest. I'm including photos of all three nests they have started.

As for Mama and Papa, there is a major construction project on the expressway in their territory. It appears that Mama and Papa are not happy with all the heavy equipment, destruction of mature trees and constant commotion to widen the expressway. We have found Mama and Papa building a nest high up in a nearby white pine tree, this is only the second nest they have built in a tree. We hope this will be their nest for the season since the construction project has placed a significant amount of rat poison stations in Mama and Papa's territory, some are less than 50 yards from Mama and Papa's nest from last season. With a contaminated food chain the further away from this area the better. Unfortunately, the new nest location still has proximity to the poison and we are very concerned for Mama, Papa and their offspring overall safety this season. We all know the impact of rat poison in the city to birds of prey over the last number of nesting seasons. I'm doing all I can to negotiate with those in charge of the project and have the poison removed but it is an uphill battle and I'm not making much progress. I have included a photo of their new nest for this season.

I hope to be updating my website soon so everyone can stay up to date on Mama and Papa's activities and images from this nesting season including updates and images of the Ravens.

All the best, Jeff

In from Robin of Illinois--The Blackwater Eagles have their first chick!

D.B.