Stella Hamilton Hunts Pale Male and the Fledglings Plus Another Kind of "Hawk"

 

 7:20 PM  Pale Male rakes a fledgling Robin off the ground, flies into a tree... 

...and eats it.

7:23 PM  Fledgling on railing at 78th and Fifth Avenue.  Just a few blocks from the nest.  Pale Male and his mates often perch in that spot.

7:24 PM Fledgling on Cleopatra's needle scaffolding.

7:25 PM  Pale Male eats a Robin.

And an Addendum photo from Stella-

ANOTHER KIND OF "HAWK"

                           11:03 PM  Wasp and Cicada
Stella's account--
 As we were watching Palemale , I heard a cicada screaming in pain (yeah I've heard one before ) . And low and behold , about 10 feet away from me , was a wasp , that had attacked a cicada . The wasp had it on its back and had it pinned down and was pumping either paralyzing venom or its eggs into the belly of the cicada . I wish I had a better picture . This is the best I can do . But it was horrific . After the wasp did what it had to do , it left the cicada , perhaps eggs already implanted in its belly . We the hawk watchers left it under a bench . I will see what happens tomorrow after work . I hope that paralyzed cicada is still there tomorrow . I mean that wasp was dragging it around as it was injecting it with its rear  end . It was very exciting !

                                (Fascinating Cicada Hawks?  So I looked them up. DB)
"Sphecius speciosus, often simply referred to as the cicada killer or the cicada hawk, is a large digger wasp species. Cicada killers are large, solitary wasps in the family Crabronidae. The name may be applied to any species of crabronid which uses cicadas as prey, though in North America it is typically applied to a single species, S. speciosus. However, since there are multiple species of related wasps, it is more appropriate to call it the eastern cicada killer. This species occurs in the eastern and midwest U.S. and southwards into Mexico and Central America. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them. In North America they are sometimes called sand hornets, although they are not hornets, which belong to the family Vespidae. Cicada killers exert a measure of natural control on cicada populations and thus may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which their cicada prey feed."
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus

Happy Hawking of Whatever Kind!
                    D.B.