Multi-fledgling Day and a Catbird Besides

There was a tail flick in the corner of my eye.  It's a Grey Catbird, Dumetella carolinensis, standing on the Big Nest.  Ordinarily a bit shy in the yard,  this species only makes very rare appearances.  Then flick, he's gone again.

 I scan for him, and who should be in the middle of the nest blending into the wood, but a fledgling pair of Mourning Doves.  Could they be Doorstep Dove and Friend's first batch of the season?

  Flick! Then Catbird is back. (Check out his chestnut red underwear.) Ahhhh, he's here for the clementine!  He grabs it and FLICK, he's gone again. 

 The young doves don't seem to be in much of a rush.  Left stretches. Right is alert.   Waiting for the next arrival of regurgitated food from a parent?

She's currently a bit gawky.  She has a little trouble turning on the "perch".  Check out her fledgling plumage.  Young dove has more camouflaged.  There are more dark spots and highly contrasting light edges to the posterior feathers than adults.

Into the fray comes two Grackle fledglings.  A foraging Robin strides between the Grackle parent and his progeny.  The fledglings veer off and follow the Robin.  Grackle parent turns around and sees his young striding off with someone else.  Robin looks around, sees he's being shadowed by strangers and walks faster.  

Apparently these young grackles will follow anybody and they begin to scramble faster after Robin.  Grackle intersects the Robin/Fledgling trajectory and jumps at Robin.  Confused Robin taking the better course of valor, takes to his wings. 

Having computer problems--More to come!

John Blakeman on T2 of the Franklin Institute Nest Plus Pale Male and Zena's Eyasses and Mama and Papa"s Eyasses-One Formel and One Tiercel?

                  Pale Male and Zena's eyasses courtesy of http://www.palemale.com/
          Some eyasses prefer the shade and some don't. 

 Screen capture courtesy of               T2 AND THE STEP-EYASSES

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www.ustream.tv/channel/the-franklin-institute-haw-cam     
I asked John Blakeman for his thoughts on the amazing T2.  The new  tiercel at the Franklin Institute nest who took up step-dad duties for the three eyasses with a vengeance.  

Plus whether the rumors he would be doing a Red-tailed Hawk seminar in Philadelphia were true.

Donna,

The T2 saga at the FI is remarkable. I know of no other instances of this, where a floating haggard came in and essentially took all the functional duties of a very recently killed resident haggard, right at the start of the brooding of hatched eyasses.

The behavioral adaptations required for this are remarkable. We falconers see and know the full hunting and killing powers and mind-sets of Red-tails. It's remarkable in and of itself that tiercels can convert themselves from hunter/killers to food providers and feeders of their own eyasses. But in this case, the new tiercel came in, almost instantly, and took up those duties. The hormonal and psychological mechanisms of this are astonishing.

And finally, T2 carefully feeds his step-eyasses. Who'da thunk?

An FI Blakeman appearance or program is quite tenuous just yet; mere talk among chatroom posters, as far as I know. The matter of expenses might be constraining. I'm in no position to get myself to Philadelphia for a day or two by my own resources, so an Amtrak ride and a night or two in some hotel would have to be accommodated, along with getting me around the city. I have no idea how to utilize cabs or buses or subways. I'd be utterly flummoxed with all of that, in any big city.

But I do have a fine digital slide show on raptors, and I'm (dare I say) extremely good in front of keen audiences. I do hawk talks around Ohio (and prairie programs, too).

--John Blakeman

Thanks John. :)  T2 is a mind boggler.  There are so many questions.  Why did Franklin Mom not run him out of the territory?  Did she know him?  Rather like Pale Male and First Love, who went to rehab for too long and PM bonded again.  The second mate died so he took up with F. L. again. Could this be similar.

 Maybe.  

But with eyasses on the nest?  The fact that he feeds them himself means to me that he's an older experienced tiercel.  As far as I know, and also I think you may have pointed out, the careful feeding of eyasses by a tiercel is something that doesn't really happen in younger males.  In fact it doesn't always happen in older males.  I've never seen Pale Male feed, though he does appear to love sitting on eggs. :)

Or did T2 loose his family this season, was in the proper hormonal stage, and that's why he took to Franklin Mom and her brood?

It drives me crazy that we'll very likely never know definitely why he's acted as he has!

As to trips to a "big city" for a underwritten seminar/slide show, you never know.  And  I wouldn't let the vagaries of city transportation stand in your way.  For a novice, cabs are the way to go.  Just make sure you know the address; a mistake I made on my first trip to NYC.  I wanted to go to the American Museum of Natural History.  A friend said, you don't need the address, every cabbie in NYC knows where the Natural History Museum is.  Wrong.  I got the one cab driver in NYC who didn't. :)

And last but not least, an American factoid-- According to PBS, Yellowstone National Park includes half of the geothermal features on the Earth.

 I did my nightly check of Mama and Papa's nest in Queens expecting to once again see Mama keeping vigil and the two eyasses basically looking like a couple of mounds of feathers snuggled into the nest.  Instead there the eyasses were standing up, totally awake, staring at their mother.  Hmmm.  Has there been an attack on the nest?  A repeat of the likely Great Horned Owl attack in which an eyass was likely snatched?  Well, Mama did some swishing around with her wings that was a little worrisome.

I scrutinized.  Wait.  Mama appears to be preening.

And before long, both the eyassess tucked their heads like grown up hawks and went to sleep standing up.  No more nightly feather piles?

Beyond that, the soon to be fledglings,  are in stances in which they are completely comparable.  Check it out.  It looks like Mama and Papa have a formel, right, and a tiercel, left!

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

A Rat Poison Strategy for Mama and Papa of Briarwood! Do Urban Hawks Fledge Earlier Than Rural Ones? The Short Bush Robin Brood and a Third Hawk Cam in NYC!

 Screen capture courtesy of  NYC Audubon and  http://www.jknaturegallery.com/rth_nestcam.html

 

As many of you know, Mama and Papa of the NYC Audubon Hawk Cam are in danger due to many bait boxes of rat poison in their territory.  Their chief watcher for many years, Jeff Kollbrunner,  sent me an email with a new strategy he hopes will make a difference for them.

 

 Hi Donna,

Hope all is well with you!

Our Red-tailed Hawk eyasses are getting big and are in their sixth week of age. I wanted to let you know that I now have a Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/JKNatureGallery/351444228237283 I can also be followed at Twitter @JKNatureGallery.

 

 I have posted my recent work with New York State Senator Tony Avella regarding the Rodenticide issues locally in Briarwood in Mama and Papa's territory on my Facebook Page. I also explained to Senator Avella in detail the recent deaths of the four Red-tailed Hawks as non-target species in Manhattan a short while back caused by Rodenticide poisoning. Senator Avella is working with me starting with the Briarwood issues at the New York State Department of Transportation as they are in charge of the Expressway expansion project locally. My initial recommendation is to suspend and remove the Rodenticide through the breeding/fledging season of March through the end of August since this can be accomplished relatively quickly if agreed upon. If deemed necessary to continue a rat control program after this time frame to utilize snap traps as an alternative.

 

 If successful implementing this strategy locally we can use this procedure as a precedent for the five Boroughs in known Bird of Prey territories where Rodenticide is being utilized. More on this topic can be read on my Facebook Page and I hope to be posting Senator Avella's letter shortly. I also hope to have more to report as an update to this effort as soon as we get the reply to his inquiry on the subject.

Best, Jeff

 Photo courtesy of http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/    

The Cathedral Nest of St. John the Divine

And from Sally of Kentucky--

Hi Donna,

I was talking to some folks on the Franklin Institute chat and we were musing about how long it would be before the eyasses fledge. Then I was wondering if urban eyasses on ledge-type nests rather than trees fledge the same time or earlier or later than their tree-raised counterparts?  I was wondering if the various watchers might have data on that?  According to Lincoln's data on his page through 2006 it took 44-52 days for Pale Male's to fledge, though we don't know an exact hatch date on those.  I am going to see what data I might be able to find about the Tulsa KJRH TV tower hawks. I wonder if the watchers from Fordham, Triborough, Cathedral, etc., have data they could share?  I find it interesting.

Thanks!

 Hi Sally,

I find the topic fascinating myself.

I'll see what I can find out.

That said, yes, most urban eyasses appear to  fledge earlier than their rural counterparts, or perhaps more specifically  in a less flighted stage of development.  Is it just lack of branching opportunities?  The often small area they grow up on? And of course we really don't know when most of them hatched to the exact day.
  (Though one of Pale Male's early eyasses just didn't want to make the leap and stayed on for many days later than usual.  PM had to resort to flying past with food and not dropping it off to get him to finally fledge.)

Most urban fledglings as you know, are just flat grounded when they first come off the nest unless they can branch up.  I thought this to be the case with rural young as well. Rather like fledgling Robins who tend to spend a couple of days hiding out in cover after they leave the nest.  Not necessarily so.

The nest on County M fledglings had that big oak to branch around in before coming off the nest.  They got loads of short flight practice going from branch to branch.  When I finally did see them come off, they flew to a nearby treeline and  then flew back.  A flight that did not include having to gain any altitude.  Gaining altitude is a big problem for urban fledglings who come off the nest and land on the ground.  But the M fledglings may have been off the nest days earlier as there were few eyes watching so I can't swear the time I saw them come off was their first trip.

Here is my take, on reliable data.  For most of the urban nests, the only data that is completely reliable to the day, will be the urban hawk cam nests as we absolutely know when the eggs hatched. :) 

There are lots of eyes at Fifth Ave.  but it will still likely be a day or two off before feeding behavior was reliably nailed down.  Same for the Cathedral Nest, etc.

Then there is the Fordham nest, which has easy access to trees not many feet from the nest and on the same plane.  No increase in altitude necessary. Actually, it is nearly impossible to tell whether when you see them come off if that is actually the first time they've been off the nest because they can go back and forth so easily.

Therefore as I said, the cams will have more precise day counts, though we'll see what the chief watchers have to say as well.

More to come...

THE ROBIN'S NEST IN THE VERY SHORT BUSH--

 The nestling Robins, May 18th.  Yes there are actually four of them, not three as I thought originally.  It appears that the angle and not wanting to get too close, contrived to give me a mis-count.

The fab foursome two days later on May 20th.  I must say, songbird chicks are almost magical in their ability to grow!  Things are getting very crowded and when I took their photo, big guy there in the back, hopped out of the nest to one of the branches.  He then returned but it won't be long before he's trotting around the yard behind Dad learning  the great art of earth worm procurement.

Mom wasn't in the least amused that I was pointing a camera at her brood, though I was done in 26 seconds.  Not the feathers sticking up on the top of her head.

Interestingly earlier in the day a friend and I had been attempting to dislodge two  five gallon pails that had nested together so tightly we couldn't get them apart.  We put the bucket edge on the step and wrangled them until they came loose.  All this razzmatazz took place a foot or so from the nest bush.  Mom watched but she didn't scold.  Only when the nest has eyes, or interestingly, a camera focused on it does she go into scold mode. 

AND A LATE BREAKING TIP FROM ROB SCHMUNK A CHIEF WATCHER OF THE CATHEDRAL NEST-  THERE IS A THIRD HAWK CAM IN NYC!

I have belatedly discovered that there is a third red-tailed hawk nestcam
in the city, and since no one else has mentioned it here, I thought I'd pass
word along.

The nest is located in the Bronx on an office building air conditioner on
Melrose Ave. right just barely off the intersection with 149th St. and Third
Ave. There's a subway entrance just across the street.

The URL is
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/southbronxhawks
You'll have to put up with a 10-15 second commercial  when you first
load the page.

Checking on it minutes ago for the very first time, I caught the mother doing a very late (8:30 p.m.) feeding with two good sized nestlings. If I understand an article in the Daily News correctly, they hatched about April 14. 

 

Local birdwatchers believe that the adults are the same pair
who nested on the Bronx Hall of Justice last year.

rbs

Donegal Browne