John Blakeman on the Flegling Upside-Down-Head Move and the 90 foot Elm Tree That Obliterated My Back Yard

 Photo Donegal Browne
Fledglings of Tristan and Isolde at the Cathedral Nest of St. John the Divine, 2006.  One of which is doing the upside down head move.

And here is Red-tailed Hawk expert John Blakeman with a theory as to why they do it..

Donegal,

The upside down posturing of Red-tail eyasses and fledglings is well known, especially among falconers. It’s just plainly cute and endearing — but its purpose and functions are unknown. It seldom happens in second-year Red-tails, and virtually never in haggards (full adults).

My explanation is that it helps fine-tune developing reflexes between the eyes, neck muscles, and the visual portions of the tiny Red-tail brain. I believe that the bird is learning to process visual information that occurs in varying orientations — a factor of great importance when in flight at various angles, compared, to the un-varying horizon. Learning this statically when perched obviates any in-flight crashes caused by visual misperceptions.

–John Blakeman

John,

Thank you for your explanation.  It makes perfect sense.  My intuition was it had something to do with processing vision but I wasn't sure what.   Not only is it cute and endearing there is also a bit of the weird about it for the first time viewer as the head is where it "should be" and then suddenly it isn't. The first time one sees it, it has kind of an Alice in Wonderland feel to it,  rather like seeing the skunks that stand on their hands for the  first time.  

I've also seen several fledglings obscuring the vision of one eye with a pillar or branch then looking with two eyes, back and forth.  I suspect it is similar to checking out binoc vision similar to the experimentation of young humans who cover one eye with a hand, take it off, look with two eyes and then look with a hand over the other eye.

Now on to other weird matters... 

The day before yesterday, I woke up at about 4:45AM.  I wasn't sure why as this isn't ordinarily when I wake up.  I  then began to hear voices, rather excited ones, outside.  Also a rather un-ordinary thing to happen.  I pulled on some clothes and went out.

This is what I saw.

  5:01am My side neighbor's  90 foot Chinese Elm had uprooted itself...

 in a freak localized storm, which I had peacefully slept through, and taken out three quarters of my hundred year old maple... 

 and a quarter of my two hundred year old oak.

Though the trees did better...

 than the fence I share with the back neighbor.
My back neighbor got half of the side neighbors elm...

 and I got the other half.  But at least it missed my house.  The back neighbor had his house roof and his garden shed clipped when the tree came down.

And this sort of thing happened all over town and not really anywhere else  

The town was declared to be in a state of emergency. 


Bizarre.

And in daylight, it didn't look much better.  This is the tree neighbors yard.  Note the uprooted elm on the right and it's mid-section and top making it's way left, crushing my fence and entering my yard.  Sigh.

But it did bring out a few Good Samaritans with chain saws...

 who burn wood for heat in the winter.  They saw it up and help you clean it up and they get a good bit of wood you don't need as you have plenty already.  In my mind an excellent solution to the problem in which no grand amounts of money have to go to a tree service.

AND...I got to take a zillion trips on the four wheeler with the little red cart full of tree limbs to the towns wood chipping area.  You have never seen so many vehicles of of so many kinds carrying tree limbs in your life-everything from Farmall tractors with manure wagons to T bird convertibles. 

Plus I did find some very cool gooey brown fungus.

Oh no it is not done yet...but I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime...Happy Hawking!

And remember you never ever know what is going to happen next...so do try and enjoy it!
Donegal Browne

Samantha Browne-Walters...Midafternoon at the Cathedral Nest

Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters                                St. Andrew and the empty nest.

Daughter Sam hopped on the subway and arrived up at the Cathedral Nest a little after 3PM.  There wasn't a hawk in sight.  (But this is my favorite view of the nest.)  

She traversed the area, checking all the favorite perches, and no luck.  There wasn't even any begging going on.  Either everyone had eaten recently or more likely Isolde was out of fledgling sight, hunting, and the big three were snatching a wee nap in her absence to be able to beg all the louder when she reappeared.

Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters

With the dearth of hawks, Sam took note of the construction going on at St. Johns.  Back in the day the nest overlooked the physician parking lot for the hospital on the other side of the street.

Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters 

Here's a little peek into the construction site of what will become an apartment building.  It isn't clear just how the structure will affect the nest but several watchers have commented that this will be the last year for this particular nest location.  We shall see.  

                           Never underestimate a Redtail.

Sam continued to scour the area without luck and then hopped back on the subway disappointed.

        http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/

Rob Schmunk had better luck in the early evening.  
Click the link above for more!

Stella Hamilton visited Central Park this evening to check on Pale Male and Company but I haven't received her report as yet.  When it comes in you'll be the first to know.

Happy Hawking!
D.B.

How Can Isolde Possibly Feed and Care for Three Fledglings Without Norman? (Third post of the day.)

Photo by Robert Schmunk
                        Isolde monitors the situation.

I have received any number of emails from people extremely concerned about how Isolde, the formel at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine nest, will be able to feed and keep watch over her three newly fledged youngsters without her mate Storm'n Norman to help.  

Norman is currently in rehab with the Horvaths and will continue to be for 5 or 6 more days.

First off  let me say, the world is a dangerous place.  And sometimes bad things happen to young hawks even with both parents in attendance.

That said, barring bad luck, of any formel in the city Isolde is probably one of the females best equipped to pick up the slack of caring for her young without the help of her mate for a week.

How's that?

   Photograph by Donegal Browne
 Tristan, left,  and Isolde, right, in 2007-A comparison of size.

First off Isolde is a very very big girl.  

Tristan, thought to be Pale Male's son, was about Pale Male's size and Pale Male doesn't look all that much smaller than his mates, right?

Well look at the difference in size between Tristan and Isolde.  

Isolde is a very large, very strong Red-tailed Hawk.

We don't know Isolde's age exactly but she is over ten years old.  She is in her prime physically.

Isolde is an extremely competent huntress.  Back in the day when she first took Norman on, occasionally while she was sitting the eggs, he'd show up his crop stuffed to maximum size to "guard the nest" without bringing Isolde a meal.  She would give him the dirtiest of looks,  fling herself off the nest and into the air to hunt for her own supper.

Norman being a young dope, would look stunned and confused. His job was guarding the nest, repelling invaders, duking it out with all comers.  Whatever was Isolde doing?  He'd look at the nest and then look at Isolde flying away.

What to do?  Eventually he'd decide he was supposed to sit on the eggs.

And before long, Isolde would return having hunted for herself and eaten in no time at all so she could return to the nest and make sure Norman wasn't screwing up somehow yet again.

But, you ask, just how is Isolde going to hunt for four?  

Isolde is an extremely competent and skillful huntress.  She knows how to get down to business.

One of the things an experienced formel does while sitting up there on the nest day after day, hour after hour, is, she watches prey patterns.  She knows who goes where and when and how.  She has thousands of images of prey patterns all neatly filed in her head to be used in hunting once she is back in the game and hunting for the fledglings.

Isolde will be using that information to good effect for the next week and thereafter.

Isolde also knows her territory inside out.  She's been there for years and years and years. 

 She also knows where the fledglings will likely be at any given stage of their development.  

Plus Gabriel on top of the Cathedral is one of the absolute best hawk perches in the city to see anything she cares to.  

To say nothing of all the levels available  by using the other extant perches on the  Cathedral to watch prey and the kids both.

Besides as one reader pointed out....

Photo by Donegal Browne
You never know.  There just might be the spirit of a fierce indomitable little hawk called Tristan, to help her out in a pinch.

(This is the third post today. Keep scrolling down if you haven't caught them all.)

Happy Hawking...
Donegal Browne
P.S.  Samantha informs me she is heading uptown today to check on Isolde and the little ones just to make sure all is going as it should.