Monday, May 23, 2016

Stella Hamilton's Pale Male Nest Report! Plus Pale Male Raids Another Nest...



Longtime Hawkwatcher Stella Hamilton was out in Central Park with her Stella Scope focused on Pale Male and Octavia's nest on 927 Fifth Avenue, today.

Stella:  One eyass is trying to peck and feed itself . (right eyass)
 Pale Male and Octavia are actually on the Linda Building , staying close by.

The Linda Building is on the next corner S on Fifth Avenue.  It became the "Linda Building" because back in the day of the original Pale Male Hawkwatchers  someone named Linda lived in that building.  

 See Marie Winn's wonderful book Red-tails in Love for stories of the young Pale Male, his mates, and the original "Regulars" at the Hawk Bench.  

Hence the name of this blog, if you have ever wondered, as my generation of Hawkwatcher came about when Pale Male and Lola's nest was torn down by the management of 927 Fifth Avenue and we new and to some extent  younger folk arrived....we, second generation Irregulars (a bit like Sherlock Holmes younger helpers) helped to protest the ripping down of the nest and then stayed to watch the nest for the many many seasons since.

And there is also a third generation, though not particularly younger, just those who appeared too late to help with the protests but who arrived to photograph and try for fame of their own by photographing  Pale Male, the most famous Red-tailed Hawk in the world. 

Now back to today's saga...I got a text from Stella.

Well...today Pale Male raided the nest of a smaller pair of birds...not our favorite of his activities but nature is nature and Hawks do whatever is necessary to feed themselves and  their young.

 We would be terribly upset if his eyasses went hungry, right?

 At any rate, Stella got the word that Pale Male was over at the Metropolitan Museum and high tailed it over there.


  The nest Pale Male had raided lying empty on the ground.  



        Pale Male flew high up onto the Met after his raid.  Though somewhat protected from the furious mob of smaller birds who had banded together to fly at him and peck at this head...it wasn't the best location.
     
Stella wrote: Pale Male behind the Met after raiding nest . He was mobbed by grackles , robins and blue jays .


Stella also noted, "Here are a couple of the people who saw the whole thing."
                     We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne














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