Pale Male, The Franklin Institute Hawks, Blakeman's Zephyr, Octavia and The Intruder

Courtesy of palemale.com
 Pale Male goes into a dive, Monday.  For those who haven't seen him in action, Pale Male is lightening fast and truly remarkable in flight.

BIG NEWS FROM THE FRANKLIN  INSTITUTE HAWKS, PHILADELPHIA...note the evergreen boughs.  It looks like the choice has been made.

Photo courtesy of Scott Kemper
"This has been a week of stunning developments at the Franklin Institute nest since the hawks finally came to their senses and returned to the best nest site in Philadelphia.  The nest grows visibly each day..."


More--http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/
Thanks to Robin of Illinois for the heads up!

The Zephyr Report
 Ohio Hawk Expert, John Blakeman has spotted Zephyr, his former falconry hawk,  twice in trees nearby his home recently.

 Photo courtesy of  palemale.com

Remember the earlier food fight this week among Octavia, an "intruder", and Pale Male? 

John Blakeman wrote, " I'd presume these to be a mated pair. If not, it's still a spring-time sexual behavior thing, where food is exchanged or shared, to determine social position and alignments. No physical harm ever occurs to the hawks."

My question, If Octavia is having a dalliance with the Downtown male as has been suspected and possibly proved, might "the intruder" have been Downtown Male trying for the sexual behavior concerning food that Mr. Blakeman is talking about but Pale Male was having none of it and reinforcing his position as Octavia's mate?

We're possibly in a whole new spectrum of behavior we've not knowingly seen before. 

Stay tuned.

Donegal Browne 

Pale Male Puts On a Show at the Hawk Bench, Tweaking the Franklin Nest, and Silver Chews Styrofoam

Pale Male Photo courtesy of palemale.com

We were talking recently on the blog about the amazing difference the light of any given day has on a hawk's feathers. 

 A grand example is this photo of Pale Male from Sunday identified as such by the photographer.   His famous paleness isn't apparent at all.  
Speaking of Pale Male and Sunday--
 From long time Hawk Watcher Stella Hamilton, 

Dear Donna, 

I was in Central Park this past Sunday, and saw Pale Male a lot.

 I was in fact very excited to watch him dive for something in the bushes right next to the Hawkbench!
Stella

 Pale Male is a marvel.  He isn't bothered a bit by familiar watchers when he's hot on the trail of prey.
  
From Jackie of Oklahoma-  
The Franklin Hawks do some nest tweaking.

Photo courtesy of  Kevin Vaughan.


Photo courtesy of  KevinVaughan .

 Photo courtesy of  Kevin Vaughan.


And last but not least The Animals on the Home Front Report--

Silver chews a Styrofoam peanut (which he isn't supposed to have) and the static electricity of the friction make the bits cling to his beak.  He stops for a full minute looking deep in thought.  Note Squirrel the Kitten biding his time in the up left corner.

A moment later, Squirrel zipped up and with a quick flick of his paw, stole  the peanut.  Silver watched the action and then went back to "thinking".

In the meantime, Pyewackit is the latest in a long line of my companion animals who, when the packing of suitcases appears to foretell a trip, crawl into the suitcase as if they don't want to be forgotten.

Yes, she's a cat and cats often cozy into places.  But in this case I'd been living out of a suitcase for nearly three months and she only got into it on the day of departure. 

Donegal Browne 

Johnson Pale Male Updates, Franklin Institute Near Miss Landings, and Squirrel Freeze Mode

 Photograph courtesy of Scott Kemper
And a head's up from grand gleaner of Wildlife News, Robin of Illinois, scroll down the blog, link below, for some delightful pictures of near miss landings at the Franklin Institute--http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

 Photo by Jeff Johnson
 Pale Male and Zena's fledge and its late day meal. You can see a Blue Jay above her scolding and possibly about to make a fly-by strike at her head which is taking some of her attention.

 

 Photo by Jeff Johnson
And Mr. Jay is not about to leave anytime soon. The juvenile has been presented with unprepared pigeon she's having to figure out how to deal with besides.  Life is just one thing after another for a young Red-tailed Hawk.

  Photo by Jeff Johnson, plus following commentary
 Late this afternoon I saw Pale Male hunting along 5th Avenue and 79th just as I walked into the Model Sailboat Pond near the Hawkbench, so I decided to proceed north thinking to catch some frames of his activity. Pale Male had gone to perch on his favorite antenna so I returned to the Sailboat Pond where I encountered a fledge in one of the trees beside the Kerbs Cafe area (north). I'm calling it Fledge 1 because it's the first I spotted today. Look at how full the crop is…I never saw any parental interaction today or meals left, but clearly such is happening.

 Photo and commentary by Jeff Johnson
 Pale Male began a little more soaring over 79th Street and Zena had magically appeared on her 927 Nest watching Pale Male's efforts (she was peering in his direction anyway).  Scanning from Zena to look at Pale Male I happened upon Fledge 2 in a tree just to the right and back  of Fledge 1.

 Photo and commentary by Jeff Johnson
 Now I have a distant view of both parents and two fledges within 100 feet of each other. They seem to really like this stand of trees. Moving in behind the tree where Fledge 2 is I try for a frame with them both in it just to present some scale and proof of identity. As I move around to do this naturally Fledge 2 moves along into another branch forcing me to move deeper into the brush near the wall along 5th Avenue. It's a poor frame but if you look at the upper right and lower left corners, Fledge 2 and 1 are in the same frame.

  Photo and commentary by Jeff Johnson

 Just as I began thinking about differing angles something plopped on the sleeve of my jacket !!! Fledge 3 was saying Hello from directly above me.

  Photo and commentary by Jeff Johnson

All three fledges were in the same copse of trees !!!  Three Red Tails within 100 feet and being paid next to no attention by Blue Jays or any other birds.

Fledge 3 moved to a lower branch on a tree alongside the wall at 5th Avenue and I wasn't able to get a frame with the trio together. Fledge 3's Hello was about the size of a Silver Dollar and looked like pancake mix. A tissue wiped most of it away on scene. Just for interest I included a frame I shot after I got home. I prefer to think of it as a greeting, since I might not have seen him/her otherwise…but maybe the fledge didn't like my jacket or decided it needed to be sent to the dry cleaners!

Jeff has fallen prey to one the good news/bad news aspects of juvenile Red-tail Hawk hunting.  You've been alerted to a Red-tails presence but you've a green and white splotch on your clothes. Often much larger than the spot above, by the way.  

Machine wash hawking apparel recommended as it frees up more funds for subway fare and equipment. :)

  Photo and commentary by Jeff Johnson

 I included a frame of a squirrel lying flat along a narrow branch with its tail curled over itself. It didn't appear unhealthy, in fact it was a plump specimen. It made no attempt to do anything except move its eyes ti watch everything I was doing. What behavior is this ?

This squirrel is absolutely fine.  She has just taken the stance of a squirrel who has discovered she is in too close a proximity to multiple hawks.


Squirrels are quite cheeky and will scold or even take on a juvenile hawk or even  an adult for cause. 

 Yes, squirrels can tell the difference between an adult and a juvenile as can the Blue Jays, Catbirds, Robins and all other birds who enjoy mobbing raptors.


When dealing with a single hawk all the squirrel has to do is scurry from the top of a branch to the bottom or round the trunk of a tree to the other side to elude the hawk.  Experienced squirrels know to stick to the trees and not try a scamper across the ground where they'll be an easy dinner for an experienced raptor.

The squirrel in question has realized that she has been caught  in an area where multiple hawks might cooperate to nab her.  Scampering to the other side of a tree trunk doesn't work very well if there is a second hawk on the other side.

(Whatever the Red-tailed literature may say, Red-tails do hunt in tandem on occasion and the squirrels know it.)

Therefore she has gone into squirrel freeze mode.  She has flattened herself on the branch and laid her tail over her back, which changes her silhouette.  Lack of movement of course reduces the likelihood of pulling the hawk's focus to herself.  I've not decided whether the squirrel has just found itself on an exposed branch in these cases or whether it is a choice to give her a 360 degree range of vision.


It is also possible that the laid tail above the body, beyond camouflage  might have a tendency to fool a hawk into closing her talons early in a strike, causing her to grasp more tail than more important squirrel parts.


Always helpful Ohio raptor expert John Blakeman filled me in on a terrific fact about squirrels which helps explain why though Red-tails find them very tasty, they don't eat more of them.  

The factoid?  A squirrel's hide is extremely tough and a Red-tail must strike them just right in order to bag them. 


An inefficient strike can lead to a miss which wastes energy or worse from the hawk's point of view may result in a nasty squirrel bite which is an uncomfortable injury with the possibility of infection.


Plus a squirrel is quite strong and agile particularly for lighter weight males who need to have even nearer to perfect technique to be successful.   Pale Male being the not only the Monarch of Central Park but the Sultan of Stealth is a terrific squirrel hunter and has courted many a female with meaty squirrel meals.

And yes, while in this behavior only the squirrel's eyes will move to follow the action, which in this case included you.


Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

John Blakeman on T2 of the Franklin Institute Nest Plus Pale Male and Zena's Eyasses and Mama and Papa"s Eyasses-One Formel and One Tiercel?

                  Pale Male and Zena's eyasses courtesy of http://www.palemale.com/
          Some eyasses prefer the shade and some don't. 

 Screen capture courtesy of               T2 AND THE STEP-EYASSES

►►

www.ustream.tv/channel/the-franklin-institute-haw-cam     
I asked John Blakeman for his thoughts on the amazing T2.  The new  tiercel at the Franklin Institute nest who took up step-dad duties for the three eyasses with a vengeance.  

Plus whether the rumors he would be doing a Red-tailed Hawk seminar in Philadelphia were true.

Donna,

The T2 saga at the FI is remarkable. I know of no other instances of this, where a floating haggard came in and essentially took all the functional duties of a very recently killed resident haggard, right at the start of the brooding of hatched eyasses.

The behavioral adaptations required for this are remarkable. We falconers see and know the full hunting and killing powers and mind-sets of Red-tails. It's remarkable in and of itself that tiercels can convert themselves from hunter/killers to food providers and feeders of their own eyasses. But in this case, the new tiercel came in, almost instantly, and took up those duties. The hormonal and psychological mechanisms of this are astonishing.

And finally, T2 carefully feeds his step-eyasses. Who'da thunk?

An FI Blakeman appearance or program is quite tenuous just yet; mere talk among chatroom posters, as far as I know. The matter of expenses might be constraining. I'm in no position to get myself to Philadelphia for a day or two by my own resources, so an Amtrak ride and a night or two in some hotel would have to be accommodated, along with getting me around the city. I have no idea how to utilize cabs or buses or subways. I'd be utterly flummoxed with all of that, in any big city.

But I do have a fine digital slide show on raptors, and I'm (dare I say) extremely good in front of keen audiences. I do hawk talks around Ohio (and prairie programs, too).

--John Blakeman

Thanks John. :)  T2 is a mind boggler.  There are so many questions.  Why did Franklin Mom not run him out of the territory?  Did she know him?  Rather like Pale Male and First Love, who went to rehab for too long and PM bonded again.  The second mate died so he took up with F. L. again. Could this be similar.

 Maybe.  

But with eyasses on the nest?  The fact that he feeds them himself means to me that he's an older experienced tiercel.  As far as I know, and also I think you may have pointed out, the careful feeding of eyasses by a tiercel is something that doesn't really happen in younger males.  In fact it doesn't always happen in older males.  I've never seen Pale Male feed, though he does appear to love sitting on eggs. :)

Or did T2 loose his family this season, was in the proper hormonal stage, and that's why he took to Franklin Mom and her brood?

It drives me crazy that we'll very likely never know definitely why he's acted as he has!

As to trips to a "big city" for a underwritten seminar/slide show, you never know.  And  I wouldn't let the vagaries of city transportation stand in your way.  For a novice, cabs are the way to go.  Just make sure you know the address; a mistake I made on my first trip to NYC.  I wanted to go to the American Museum of Natural History.  A friend said, you don't need the address, every cabbie in NYC knows where the Natural History Museum is.  Wrong.  I got the one cab driver in NYC who didn't. :)

And last but not least, an American factoid-- According to PBS, Yellowstone National Park includes half of the geothermal features on the Earth.

 I did my nightly check of Mama and Papa's nest in Queens expecting to once again see Mama keeping vigil and the two eyasses basically looking like a couple of mounds of feathers snuggled into the nest.  Instead there the eyasses were standing up, totally awake, staring at their mother.  Hmmm.  Has there been an attack on the nest?  A repeat of the likely Great Horned Owl attack in which an eyass was likely snatched?  Well, Mama did some swishing around with her wings that was a little worrisome.

I scrutinized.  Wait.  Mama appears to be preening.

And before long, both the eyassess tucked their heads like grown up hawks and went to sleep standing up.  No more nightly feather piles?

Beyond that, the soon to be fledglings,  are in stances in which they are completely comparable.  Check it out.  It looks like Mama and Papa have a formel, right, and a tiercel, left!

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

STEP-DAD RED-TAILED HAWK!!!--A NEW ONE FOR THE "LITERATURE"Franklin Mom Takes a New Mate Who Is Feeding Her Eyasses!

Photo from FaceBook by way of Tulsa's Jackie Dover, by way of Robin of Illinois

Smaller new Franklin Stepdad on the left and larger Franklin Mom on the right.  As original Pale Male Regular Ben Cacace used to say, "NEVER UNDERESTIMATE A RED-TAIL!"  And this is definitely an occasion for the sentiment.

Hold onto your hats!!! 

  As we know, rapid bonding with a new mate, once the living hawk knows their previous mate has died, or when the reproductive imperative (It's time to COPULATE!) takes over,  can sometimes be a nearly same day process.  But Franklin Institute Mom, has done something I've not only never seen,  can't find a mention of it in the hawk literature either, but it appears no one in on the latest has ever seen or heard of the behavior either.

 She's gone and bonded with a new male while she has eyasses on the nest.  Ordinarily a formel  with eyasses on the nest, attempts to take care of them on her own while also protecting the territory from interlopers.  And another Red-tail is considered an interloper.

 This tiercel must is a real charmer.

I'm completely boggled!

 Why would a male take over the care and feeding of another tiercel's brood?

Now perhaps this isn't as rare as we think? 

 I don't know, we've had a number of instances of widowed hawks with nests full of young who didn't bond with a new hawk though they certainly could have used the help.

And why would a tiercel take on the care of another male's progeny.  In many species, males are out to do in the young of a new mate so he can replace them with offspring of his own.

Why would a tiercel do this? 

Here's my hypothesis--perhaps this tiercel had a mate and young of about this age this season.  Could they all have died? Frounce could have done it for instance, and left the  tiercel in the hormonal stage of the reproductive continuum in which he's being spurred to hunt like a maniac and feed young.

Then he comes across Franklin Mom and her nest full of eyasses.  There's no male fending him off so perhaps with the above posited biological urges, he hunts and makes a gift to mom.

Which during this time a year is also food to be fed to eyasses.

The urges meld and suddenly Mom has herself a new mate taking on all the responsibilities of mates at this time of year.

 Wow!

 Check out the main blog covering the Franklin Institute Nest for their take.

Franklin Institute Camera

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Hawk history at the Franklin Institute: a stepdad already?

Just as we were recovering a little from the sadness at losing Dad, our beloved tiercel, and admiring the formel's ability to single-parent, aided so effectively by the Franklin Institute's food drops, events started tumbling from Sunday morning onwards faster than we could follow.

Red-tail hawk history is being made as it appears that a new tiercel has moved into the Franklin Institute territory, has been accepted by mom, and they are now pair-bonded.  It is unprecedented for a formel with eyasses on the nest to tolerate another hawk in her territory, let alone come anywhere close to the nest. yet this image taken yesterday from the exterior nest camera, clearly shows the new tiercel in front flying with a vole into the nest, closely accompanied by the formel.

MORE
http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/ 

Donegal Browne

PALE MALE HAS A HATCH! FRANKLIN DAD LIKELY DEAD. ATLAS AND ANDROMEDA HAVE A HATCH!

 Photo courtesy of http://www.palemale.com

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS

 Good News--

Photographer Rik Davis, a fixture at the hawk bench for many years, called Marie Winn, author of Red-tails in Love, with the news of a hatch at 927 Fifth Avenue.  Lincoln Karim also states that Pale Male is busy hunting for his new family.

 Bad News--

 Contributer Linda Maslin sent in possible news of the Franklin tiercel.  We do not have a positive ID, but the area in which the hawk was hit could be indicative.

Mike Thierfelder

Hello, I have unfortunate news about what happened to Dad. On Saturday morning at about 6:30 AM I was driving east on I76 when I witnessed a Red Tail Hawk struck and killed by a small truck in the left lane several car lengths ahead of me. The location was just west of the 30th street underpass, between the BFB split and the 30th oncoming ramp. Given the location and timing this was certainly Dad.

The bird came out from under the truck, skiddied accross the road ahead of me and ended on the right shoulder. I am positive it was a red tail. He may still be there on the shoulder. Sorry it took so long to get this out. I heard about this Tuesday morning and was unable to ever get through the FI phone system to a real person. So I applied to your group and had to wait for acceptance
Mike T.

 Then an update from Tulsa's Jackie Dover, by way of Robin of Illinois--
"Carolyn Card Sutton Just returned from driving the area of I76 described by Mike. Most definitely the red tail killed there was Dad; it was so VERY much his primary hunting grounds; directly across river from the Schuylkill Banks Park across off ramp from Spring Garden Bridge next to Art Museum where we have watched him so many times over 4 years. Unfortunately, although I drove the route twice, there was no sign of Dad on the shoulder of the road. There are many construction crews/lane closures in area, and I believe some worker or other cleaned up the remains.. The area there was very clean (no trash, litter, anything), considering all the 24/7 traffic.".............
Now we know.

A memorium in photographers for Franklin Dad,

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/CI9iG9dm

GOOD NEWS

Update on Astoria Park/RFK Bridge Hawk Nest

From Jules Corkery, major watcher of the Astoria Park Nest-

Hi All

This morning, Atlas brought food to the nest so we got to see both parents - they look alert and well fed.  After Atlas left, Andromeda brought the rat around to the back of the nest and two little grey downy heads popped up above the nest to greet her for breakfast.

They are still only visible when they are super active so we're not sure if there are any others.

Good luck, little family.

Jules and Robert

Jules is also a community activist and urban hawk educator who, particularly since Atlas' original mate Athena was poisoned leaving eggs on the nest, has been out there spreading the news about the dangers of secondary rat poison.   She's now distributing NYC Audubon's brochure/flyer about safer rat control.

Just an example of what we can all be out doing from house-a-fire Jules referring to the flyer  NYC ,

The Astoria Park Allliance would love to distribute the flyer!  It's My Park Day is May 19th - we come in contact with an estimated 500 park patrons.  We will have volunteers from NY Cares,The  International High School, Green Shores NYC, and a few others.  We also will be presenting at our Community Board 1 on May 15th. 

 I'd also like to bring flyers to our Astoria Civic Association meeting and give some to the local BID, Central Astoria Local Development Corp.

Thanks!

Jules

Here is the link for the  flyer

http://www.nycaudubon.org/images/protecting%20raptors.pdf

 The end game would be to have Brodifacoum and Difethialone, the second generation poisons that give hawks no clues of their presence,  made illegal first in the communities where we live and then everywhere.

 Donegal Browne

THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE TIERCEL IS MISSING!!! Do Pale Male and Zena Have a Hatch?

                                       Photo courtesy of    http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

The Franklin Institute tiercel was last seen on Friday.  He has gone missing leaving his formel with three very young eyasses on the nest.


The formel left the nest today to hunt.  She was gone two hours but did return with a large rat. Unfortunately it will be very difficult if not impossible for her to feed and care for three eyasses on her own.  

I have suggested that the local Hawkwatchers institute a supplemental food program similar to the one rehabber Bobby Horvath and the Riverside Park Hawkwatchers used when Riverside Dad was poisoned leaving Intrepid, the Riverside Mom with eyasses on the nest. Previously frozen rats and Quail were left where she could see them.  She took to the program without missing a beat. It worked very well and no eyass starved on the nest.


If memory serves, The Franklin Institute Nest overlooks a highway which will possibly make leaving visible and easily obtainable food for the formel to take to the nest somewhat more difficult.  Perhaps there is an adjacent window ledge where food could be left discretely for her to find.  This would also keep her closer to the eyasses in case they needed to be protected from predators.

The Franklin Hawk Cam was turned off for a short while after the tiercel went missing but then began broadcasting again.  It is currently off again. ???  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-franklin-institute-haw-cam

Fingers crossed.

Donegal Browne

 P.S.  Word began to circulate today that feeding behavior may have been observed on the part of Zena on the 927 nest.  No confirmation yet from long time Fifth Avenue Hawkwatchers. 
                           

Pale Male Isn't the Only Red-tail Dad Who's Slow Off the Nest- Franklin Mom Does a Lola, Riverside Dad Missing

Photograph courtesy of palemale.com
Pale Male vacates the nest bowl while Ginger Lima takes his place entering from the other side of the nest.

Photograph courtesy of http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

The Franklin Institute Red-tailed hawks in Philadelphia are the proud parents of 3 eyasses. And Franklin Dad, very much like Pale Male, is very devoted to his offspring and rather likes sitting the nest. Also like Pale Male, when Franklin Mom reappears, Franklin Dad doesn't hop right up. Oh no, in fact he rather, um well, ignores her, dum de dum, as if she weren't standing right over his shoulder staring or walking around on the edge of the nest waiting for him to vacate the premises.

As staring and pacing failed to get a rise out of Dad, Franklin Mom gave him a bit of a gentle headbutt, then paced some more. Dad looked up but still didn't HOP up. So next, I'm told there was a possible poke, while she moved around the edge of the nest. This eventually got him to rise. At which time she inspected the contents of the nest. Evidently finding all to her satisfaction she then settled in on top of the 3 wee white eyasses.

There were occasions when not only did Lola give Pale Male a bump, she followed it up with a beak poke and then, I'm assuming, not seeing enough action, it looked like she may have given Pale a pinch. He did hop right up on whatever the escalated action was, at any rate.

Without question the formel is the boss of the nest and some people believe she is rather the boss of the pair when it comes down to it. That may be part of the reason that the formel is larger than the tiercel is.

As to other Red-tailed Hawk Nests-

Rob Schmunk of http://bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com/
reports that though it might well be time for a hatch up at the nest behind St. Andrew at The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, no feeding behavior has yet been seen.

And I received an email from Amy Devon, a watcher of the Riverside Nest--possible bad news. No one has reported seeing the male of the pair in several days. The is particularly scary as there are any number of rat bait stations in the area even though watchers have done their best to get them removed, they remain. This was the pair that lost their first clutch of eyasses to poison.

I don't have official word on this but I was told that the nearby restaurant is the entity placing the rat poison. Does anyone know for sure?

There has been some talk of a boycott of the restaurant, with flyers being distributed to explain it's origin but if the restaurant isn't the perpetrator that could be a misplaced action, though poor garbage sanitation by restaurants is regularly the impetuous for rat infestations in NYC Parks.

Philadelphia Franklin Institute Red-tailed Hawks

Courtesy of http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

Robin of Illinois sent an email with an update. The Franklin Hawk Cam is up and running.
Link above.

Note the wooden tray box they're using to anchor their nest. That is something that is very do-able for humans, to give the hawks a little help when a window ledge just isn't quite big enough and particularly if there is nothing for the hawks to anchor their nest to.

I do wonder if it ever collects water?

Though if it does, it doesn't seem to have affected their success, at least so far.

Donegal Browne

Willow Street Red-tailed Hawk, Banding Birds, Polar Bears Take on Spy Cams, Pale Male's Mate Lola, Plus the Franklin Red-tails are Back!

Photo by Mitch Nusbaum

In from Mitch Nusbaum, The Willow Street Villa Percher.
I must admit this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk is certainly giving Mitch and his new camera "the look".

Next, What's Your Opinion About Banding Wild Birds?
There has been a conversation going on amongst some of the NYC Hawkwatchers about the pros and cons of the banding of healthy Red-tailed Hawks as is sometimes done when it comes to young birds on or off the nest or even adult birds who can be caught for a few moments when they fly into a net or grasp a foot trap set by banders.

In the case of the foot trap it isn't like those nasty metal things with teeth. The hawks are lured down by a non-native bird in a box, often a pigeon or starling, (which they can see but, don't worry, they can't actually get to. It just wouldn't be fair, now would it?) and then the hawk's feet are caught in netting that is on the box, they're banded, and then released.

I think the conversation started because of the Old Gal, and the information that was garnered about her due to the fact that she had been banded before she was a year old. If she hadn't been banded, we'd never have known how old she was and how well she'd done over all these many years.

Wildlife Rehabilitators Bobby and Cathy Horvath band all the birds that come under their care before they are released and no bird has ever been harmed in the process. They are very caring and experienced.

You ask, what about others?

Banders do have to be licensed by the government or work under the banding license of a Master Bander who oversees their work. They also must be licensed to possess/collect as they do hold a bird for a few minutes who is healthy and not in the throes of being rescued due to illness, injury, or dangerous circumstances.

A momentary time out here. Let me reiterate, as sometimes there is confusion, any citizen may lay hands on a bird who is injured, ill, or in jeopardy in order to help it.

A bird in jeopardy is removed from the danger, say like a fledgling in the middle of the street, and released in a safe spot.

As for the other two categories, injured or ill, the bird must be taken to a licensed wildlife rehabber or a vet for care.

Okay, back to the main event. This matter of banding--

What is your opinion about healthy hawks being banded with those little metal ankle bracelets with the numbers?

Hit the Contact Me button on the right column of the page to send me an email with your opinion.

Next up from Robin of Illinois, a wonderful video about what Polar Bears do when they spy a Polar Bear Spy Cam---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT0O2RyxnkY

And from Hawkwatcher Jackie Dover of Oklahoma with news on the Red-tailed Hawk pair who nest right outside a window of the The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA-

Hi, Donegal--

Della Micah reports that renovations are underway--

http://sunnydixie.blogspot.com/

Happy New Year!

Jackie Dover, in Oklahoma

Thanks for the news everyone!

LOLA UPDATE-

As of January 2, 2011, Pale Male's mate Lola has still not been sighted in Central Park. Hawkwatcher Emma Cale reports that Pale Male appears to be watching for Lola's return.

Pale Male and Lola are often seen sky dancing by mid-January. Observations of the first copulation of the year range from the last week of January through the first week of February.

Donegal Browne