PALE MALE AND OCTAVIA: STELLA HAMILTON FLEDGLING REPORT! THE SHEEP MEADOW HAWKS CONTINUED- THEY PLOT AGAINST AN INTRUDER, AND YES, COUNTRY HAWKS DO HAVE ORANGE CHESTS

Just in from hawkwatcher Stella Hamilton, photos and commentary.  --She was out in Central Park again today following the progress of Pale Male and Octavia's three fledglings.

5:28PM Fledgling One sitting on a sparrow's nest crying for a meal. I was told by hawk watchers that Pale Male had already raided this nest . 

5:33PM Pretend raid but still crying . This one is eating the nesting material .

   5:50PM  Fledge2- On a branch above the drinking fountain, from which she had just had a drink, on 76th .   (Note the  full crop. D.B.)        

 6:03PM Pale Male dropped food on the ground. Fledglings dove in but only one ate.  Pale Male was keering loudly from an adjacent tree. 

6:21PM   Fledgling 3 on a branch near 5th Ave and 76th St.

At this point in time, the fledglings are feeling very sorry for themselves. They just don't quite get it yet.  Suddenly after all those weeks of stuffed crops on the nest, hunting courtesy of their parents,  it is now time for the school of hard knocks.  Pale Male and Octavia will continue to make food deliveries as the fledglings learn to hunt for themselves but the meals won't be as frequent as the youngsters think they should be. 

NEXT UP PART IV OF THE SHEEP MEADOW PAIR VERSUS THE INTRUDER... FROM EARLIER IN THE MONTH.  SO MANY FASCINATING HAWK EVENTS AND SO LITTLE TIME!

To recap momentarily, Valkyrie and Hunter---

 Just temporary names if you like.   "Mom" and "Dad" become confusing when and if one of a pair is lost. Which invariably will happen over time. To say nothing of rather disrespectful to their personal selves as entities.  Then you have Mom 1 and Mom2 which, at least in my mind, is well...generic and disrespectful.  The next post up will have my perennial explanation of why I think names are the way to go with urban hawks.  

Besides Jane Goodall does it  and I see no reason why we can't follow her lead.  Besides I kept writing Isolde for the formel as this bird looks very like her...no she isn't Isolde but she does have numerous physical characteristics in common...

As I was saying, to recap yesterday's post slightly, Valkyrie and Hunter after observing an intruder to the nest area from the same perch for some minutes had a very quiet little enfamilial chat, at which time Hunter took off....

 

 And Hunter is off!

 Note he is beginning to curve towards the south.

I suspect Hunter is going to come round and get behind the intruder.  Valkyrie (I started to write Isolde again. Drat!) therefore will be facing the nest ready to nab an intruder before it can go for the eyasses.  And Hunter will be guarding her back. 

Hunter is now obscured by a bough.  Look at his trajectory in the first photo of the sequence above with this one and the following photographs.

See him in this lightened crop?

Now?

Behind the bottom bough.

He's still behind the bottom bough.

Now he is below the bottom bough.  In the meantime....

Valkyrie is still keeping the intruder under surveillance

Valkyrie looks down and I shift position slightly.  She still has the prey!  

 

That's right, this whole thing started with her wresting the prey from Hunter who, I say charitably, may have been attempting to prep it.

                                Valkyrie checks the nest.

                                   She checks the intruder.

 

The intruder seems to be nominally coming this way.  Tahj comes round the tree I'm standing in front of says,"Come here", very quietly.

And there's the intruder.    It isn't a very big dog you might say.  Well, I think one of the reasons this pair chose a Sheep Meadow tree, even though the area tends towards hordes of people being around, is that it is one of the few places in the park in which dogs are prohibited.  A dog is a predator and the nest is in a tree not a building as so many urban Red-tail nests are.  This pair is obviously urbanized enough to deal with people who, at least in Central Park, tend to be predictable.  They may look at you but most won't even see you and urban people are highly unlikely to try to make a grab for you....on the other hand dogs tend to go with their instincts. 

Whatever the case, my photo program is giving me trouble so we'll have to wait for tomorrow to continue the Sheep Meadow Saga.

 
Young orange chested Red-tails, Primus and Secundus, on a rural Wisconsin nest- Rock County, Highway County M.
 I noted today that on James O's blog,  http://yojimbot.blogspot.com/ , that he had a photograph of a non-urban fledgling with an orange chest.  He explained that some NYC hawkwatchers believe that only urban eyasses have orange chests, i.e. country eyasses have white chests.  

Above is another example of rural orange chested eyasses.  This nest was in an oak tree in the middle of a corn field in Wisconsin.  You can't get much more rural  than that.

In fact the only white chested fledgling I remember seeing, was one of Hawkeye and Rose's youngsters out at Fordham...definitely urban. 

Happy Hawking!  
Donegal Browne