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

A Pale Male Sunday Update from Stella Hamilton! Frannie The Sand Hill Crane or Was It Her Mate? And the Birds at the Bywater!

 Photo courtesy of palemale.com  
 The flapping has started though the hopping is mostly yet to come.

A PALE MALE UPDATE FROM STELLA
 

A few of us, including some from the "new generation" of hawkwatchers gathered at Hawkbench this past Sunday to watch Pale Male , Octavia and the three babies . They had a big audience.  Some looking through binoculars , but most looked through the Stellascope.  I just love to watch the expression on people's faces when they see a hawk on the nest with their babies for the first time . 

Come on you know that look ." Oh wow!" 
Followed by a jaw drop?

One of the highlights of the afternoon was sometime around 5pm , when  Pale Male chased an egret away from the nest . The Egret headed toward the Ramble and both he and Pale Male disappeared for a minute . We later saw Pale Male emerge from the Ramble , being chased by a kestrel . So that chase went on for about 5 minutes , with Pale Male being dive bombed on his royal blond head every few seconds by the kestrel . Then it was quiet again . 

Octavia had been pretty active herself.  Stretching  her wings and kiting above us as if she simply wanted to have fun . Both she and Pale Male would disappear for a while, leaving the nest and the kids seemingly unattended .

 I wondered if we would see a feeding ? Sure enough about 15 minutes past 7, Pale Male flew around the tree tops on 5 th Ave  with a massive partially eaten rat . It was so huge he looked as if he was having a hard time taking it to nest ! Octavia had positioned herself on a corner of the "Linda Building" as if ready to assist .  So Palemale flew with it over the trees , then to one of the lower corner balconies of the "Dr. Fisher Building" , then to "Woody Allen Building", then finally to nest!  Boy , did we all cheer !  Octavia followed right behind him, and started to pull meat to feed to the babies . 

So glad we waited. It was a wonderful afternoon.

Many thanks Stella! Keep them coming!

Next Up, Checking in with Frannie the Sandhill Crane

As many of you will remember Frannie is sitting on a nest atop a dry spot in small pond.

 But when I went to check on her on Sunday, something was odd.  I couldn't put my finger on it at the time but note her head is at a slightly different angle than usual and her body appears bigger and maybe flatter somehow?

After further scrutiny I decided this might not be Franny at all but rather her mate.   Or perhaps  there are colts under her which make her body look different?

Hmmm, maybe if I go away I can sneak another look later and look for more clues as to what may be different today. So I decided to walk a short distance to the bridge which spans a bywater of the Sugar River as there appeared to be dozens of swallows zipping around at major speed.

And zip they did. 

 There were several Tree Swallows.

 And even more Cliff Swallows, identified by the head patch and the rump patch when she swerved past.

Also in the mix, there were migrating warblers. 

A Yellow-rumped Warbler

See.   He actually does have a yellow rump.

Not to be confused with a Yellow Warbler, which has a yellow everything.
 Plus the day brought,

A pair of conversing Rose-breasted Grosbeaks.

 Plus at the banding station, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, for those who have never seen one.

But what about Frannie/or her mate you ask?

 While I was attempting to photograph Warblers and Swallows, she/he watched, head up, the whole time.

Then when  I drove past, turned around and came back I could see she was standing up looking down.  But in a nanosecond, she plopped back onto the nest before I could get a look at anything. 

 Well, maybe next time.

And last but not least the little pale mystery bird.

When I first pull into the driveway, I always scan the trees for the Cooper's Hawk and check what is up at the northside bird feeder.  From my position I was looking at a three quarter view of the feeder, back and side.  Well see was spraying everywhere and the House Sparrows were being chased off the feeder, by a bird I could not see.  So I got out of the car and quietly tried to get to the other side of the feeder.

I got to the other side of the feeder and the seed quit spewing out and a pale sparrow sized bird flew to the far side onto the fence.  When I turned back this bird was sitting looking at me.

Anybody have a guess?  

Bottom bill appears to be at least partially yellow.  The little of the wing that can be seen appears to have more pigment than the front of the bird and there might be a ghost of a white throat there as well.  

Suggestions?

FLEDGE AT FIFTH AVENE!!

Photo courtesy of http:www.palemale.com/
Hopping and flapping is well under way on Fifth Avenue!  Their is one off and one on at Pale Male and Zena's nest.

And the NYC Raptors Group, a congregation of many of the major hawkwatchers,  bloggists, the Horvaths, and more rehabbers in NYC, has already been extremely busy tracking and sometimes rescuing this season's fledglings.

It started out because citizens who'd come across a raptor in distress would sometimes leave a message on NYC Audubon's phone after hours, sometimes they'd email one of the bloggists, or attempt to find a hawkwatcher in Central Park.  And through no fault of anyone, the message wasn't always gotten to someone who could help in a timely manner. 

Now when word comes into any of the above, that at hawk is down, a fledgling is in a dangerous place, there are kestrel fledglings running around on a sidewalk, a Red-tail stranded, the person contacted puts the word out electronically to the raptors group and whoever is closest, capable of dealing with the problem and available takes off to help, often seconded by others if necessary. 


MORE TO COME

Pale Male's Nest, Rats and gulp, Sanitation, Plus Pip Scuttles

Photograph courtesy of Cheryl Cavert

A Tulsa juvenile Red-tailed Hawk having successfully grabbed a rat, now must figure out how to dispatch and eat it.

A hawk this age doesn't know a poisoned rat from Shinola.

Which brings us to a question via the comments section I received from Riverside Park Hawk Watcher Melody Andres--

Interesting theory regarding the possibility of the build up of low doses of poison causing Lola to become infertile. It got me thinking. the Riverside Park single mom is looking better than ever since her mate passed away. The Eyasses born just 4 wks ago look more developed than last year's clutch at that age.

Is it possible that Mom and clan are benefiting from the rats being provided by the Parks Dept.? She is hunting but also accepts the food left for her so we know that at least part of her diet is untainted.

Certainly Riverside Mom and the eyasses are benefiting greatly from the supplemental rats. Everybody is getting all the food they need. It takes the pressure off her time and the energy that she would have to expend hunting alone for everyone. Plus as you say the supplemental rats are poison free were in good health and well fed. I don’t discount at all that most of the rats in NYC carry some poison in their bodies which is detrimental to the health and development of urban hawks.

Humans have been having an inter-species war with Brown Rats (No they didn’t come from Norway.) for centuries and as we have been attempting to exterminate them, evolutionary strategies have developed to win the war on their end.

Rats reproduce at an explosive rate. They become sexually mature at 5 weeks and can breed year round. Gestation is only 21 days and a litter can be up to 14. (And remember in just 5 weeks all of them can start reproducing themselves.)

Rats as a species become immune eventually to every poison we’ve come up with. Because of their high reproduction rate , rats with new combinations of genes are born constantly. Poison is set, many rats die, but those who didn’t die of the poison either by luck or are genetically superior and survive that poison produce young who are more likely to survive the poison as well. The rate of survival for that poison increases with each generation.

How many young do our urban Red-tail pairs produce per year? Zero to three. Because of their extremely low population in the first place at the top of the food chain and their low reproduction rate, Red-tails will never develop genetic immunity to rat poison. The rats on the other hand, eventually can eat poison bait like candy, have bodies full of it, and are not bothered in the least. All it takes is one bad rat per hawk and poof, empty territories.

Plus, and this is my “favorite” survival strategy of rats, when a large fraction of a rat community is exterminated the remaining rats increase their reproductive rate until the colony is quickly back to its previous population.

That is why poison will never ever do the job.

Yes, I said NEVER! And it is true.

The only thing that does work is to cut off the rat food supply. Rats are hierarchical. When the food supply is low , the lower classed rats die first and then on up the social ladder. If they can’t eat, they can’t reproduce.

No species becomes immune to no food.

The whole thing is a no brainer.

Sanitation, sanitation, SANITATION!

Photo courtesy of palemale.com

After sharing a pigeon for dinner, Pale Male and Ginger Lima admire their eyasses, one on each side of the nest bowl. I'm always relieved when they eat something besides rat for a meal.

Tonight Pip isn't sleeping under Violet's wing, but rather up against the front curve of the nest.

Evidently he got chilly, having no nest mates to sleep in a pile with, so he scuttled over to mom for a warm snuggle.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male and Ginger Look Into the Bowl of the Nest, or are they?

Pale Male and Ginger look into the bowl of the 927 Fifth Avenue nest.

This looking into the bowl stance is often seen when there is a hatch. That isn't it this time.

Are they looking at an abandoned egg?

Though some watchers think that Pale Beauty left an egg in the nest, a good proportion of other watchers don't think so.

I suppose they could be mulling whether there is enough bowl lining. Doubtful.

Interestingly, and somewhat unusual, Pale Male is standing on the same side of the bowl as the prey he'd tempted Ginger into coming to get by flying back and forth in front of the nest. Ordinarily he'd be on the other side of the bowl and she'd be on the side with the gift.

Of course we can't really say that Ginger isn't looking at the prey, can we? Check out the angle of her head. But then again, she could just be full to her eyeballs.

Is Pale Male pointing out where he'd like Ginger to be? I'm thinking that my be closer. He does seem to want Ginger to start sitting on the nest.

Is it just photoperiod that is "egging" him on? Or as Pale Male has trained so many young mates could he be concerned that she might not know it was "time" and just lay an egg any old place? (It does happen in females of smaller species, I don't know about raptors.) Trying to keep an egg from appearing in the wrong place would take some complicated thought on Pale Male's part, I admit. More likely he just instinctively feels like it is "time" and as such she should be on the nest.

And another good sign concerning up coming eggs, during the last couple of days, Ginger has been selecting more materials for the nest bowl.

And what is the business of Pale Male only hunting within sight of the nest for quite some time now? That's very unusual.

STAY TUNED!

Donegal Browne