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

Three Eyasses at Fordham! Pale Male and Ginger Lima Present the Top of a White Head, Plus Violet and Pip Admire the View

Photograph by Richard Fleisher

Rose does it again! With the help of her latest mate, Vince, of course. Hawkeye her mate of many years was killed by secondary poisoning from eating a rat that had ingested rat poison.

U P D A T E-a main watcher of the Fordham nest, Rich Fleisher sends in the latest-

Hi,

Three eyases on the Fordham nest. When I saw them on Tuesday they were moving around, quite active. I am attaching one photo. Others on my flickr site.

Rich

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

Photo courtesy of palemale.com

Pale Male is back to wearing his proud-alert-always-hunting-father-hawk-expression, as opposed to having the concerned-worried expression he has worn for the last six years as he and Lola waited day after day, the season wearing on, waiting for a hatch that never happened. (In case you missed the FLASH and photo of the top of the eyasse's head earlier, remember to scroll down to the next post down after this one.)

Loyal hawk watcher and long time activist against rat poison Katherine Herzog reports from her view at The Bench.-

Pale seems to be bringing everything and anything to the nest....pigeons, rats, mice, squirrels....also smaller birds, starlings and such.

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com
Ginger Lima puts herself between the full hot sun and her eyasses so they do not over heat. Though she, with her very dark heat collecting plumage, has to pant to disperse the heat collected by her body while she is doing it. For a better view, double click the photo.

Also from Katherine concerning the new Mom--

The female, at least during my vigils, has not gotten off the nest once since the hatching/s....she stretches her legs, her wings, stands over them...mantling them and feeds them.

When they're sleeping...she likes to catch flies and other insects on the fly. A bit of protein and some diversion.

When Pale makes a visit with food or to check in with her.....she practically shoves him off the nest! She doesn't need any help from him!
A very different personality from Lola....who I remember liked to take a short break.

This female is eating very little from what I've observed. She'll pick a small amount for herself but only after she's feed the kid/s.

According to report, often late in the day, Pale Male is stashing food for Ginger in off nest locations. He knows she needs a break even if she doesn't. Pale Male is also a Dad that very much enjoys tending his offspring. So much so that Lola would, on occasions have to bump him a bit to get him to vacate the bowl so she could get back to "her job".

And what are Violet and Pip doing this night? Pip is attempting to sit up and sleep like a big bird. And Violet is letting him use her for a prop.


Still photo taken from the NYU Hawk Cam
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/25/answers-about-pip-and-violet/

Pip leans against Violet while she does a little preening on his head.

And a little more.

He keels but then struggles his way back up.

Every young creature has the urge to be more like the adults and Pip sits up, leans next to mom, and looks at the park view.

But as sleep sets in he begins to slide down.

And eventually that heavy over sized head begins to flop forward. When last I looked he was sleeping face down, flat as a pancake. These growing up things take time.

Donegal Browne

FLASH! A WHITE FLUFFY HEAD ON 927 FIFTH!!!

Just in from longtime hawk watcher Kentuarian--
Alpha with Mother 25 May 2011 at 927 Fifth Ave :: Detail of a photo by
Lincoln Karim ::
http://www.palemale.com/may252011s.html

Restless Pip? What is Violet Doing? A Scrum of House Finches Maul Their Father, and Spring's Mallards

NYU Washington Square Red-tails Hawk Cam, courtesy of
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/ask-about-pip-the-juvenile-hawk/#preview
Pip is very restless.

He can't seem to settle in.

.
Up. He appears to be trying to preen.


Stretch.

Down.

Up again. He moves to the other section of the nest. Is Violet preening him?














Up again.




Asleep.

There was a tremendous cacophony of chirping outside. I went to the glass door and a scrum of nearly fledged House Finches were mobbing their father.


That is, all but the one at the top, who had already figured out the self-feeding lesson and was quietly, from an aloof position, shelling and chewing the heart of sunflower seeds.

The rest are fixated on the male.






Dad has had enough and flies off. Resituating himself in few moments on another perch while he demonstrates sunflower seed eating technique.





After being screamed at in the face, Dad gives in and he feeds everyone, including the one who is perfectly capable of eating from the feeder himself.

Photograph by Paul R. Anderson

Photograph by Paul R. Anderson
It wouldn't be Spring without Mallard Ducklings.