The Adventures of the Stealthy Belly Band, the Red-tailed Hawk.

When last we met, Belly Band the Red-tailed hawk, whom I was leaning toward being the female of the pair, was heading off into the distance.

 In actuality this is what she looked like using my long lens so in actuality she was about twice as far away as this view and no more than a speck.

  I cropped this down so you could see BB's wing span. That is definitely more of a female span than a male's.  She's gliding, looking around.

She catches an updraft.

 She starts to gain altitude.  There is no flapping involved here.

 She's still gaining altitude.  She's now at the top of that ribbon of blue sky.

                                                     Faster.

                            She tips up slightly.

 She banks left.  Yes, the bird is still Belly Band.  They've switched off so many times I keep checking whenever I get a chance.

Her right wing tip flips up.  

She heads towards a wood lot.  Suddenly there is the most gosh awful ruckus over my head.

It's a flock of geese trying to arrange themselves into a tidy flying V and everyone has something to say.

The cacophony continues but things are shaping up. 

  I often wonder if they are honking get out of the way or make room or here I come or whether it is just a sound cue so everyone knows where everyone else is?

WAIT!

Then I realize....where did the hawk go?  DRAT!  I look back.  She of course is long  gone having taken her chance to disappear while I was distracted.

We shall meet again!

Happy Hawking!

Donegal Browne

Stella Hamilton Hunts Pale Male and the Fledglings Plus Another Kind of "Hawk"

 

 7:20 PM  Pale Male rakes a fledgling Robin off the ground, flies into a tree... 

...and eats it.

7:23 PM  Fledgling on railing at 78th and Fifth Avenue.  Just a few blocks from the nest.  Pale Male and his mates often perch in that spot.

7:24 PM Fledgling on Cleopatra's needle scaffolding.

7:25 PM  Pale Male eats a Robin.

And an Addendum photo from Stella-

ANOTHER KIND OF "HAWK"

                           11:03 PM  Wasp and Cicada
Stella's account--
 As we were watching Palemale , I heard a cicada screaming in pain (yeah I've heard one before ) . And low and behold , about 10 feet away from me , was a wasp , that had attacked a cicada . The wasp had it on its back and had it pinned down and was pumping either paralyzing venom or its eggs into the belly of the cicada . I wish I had a better picture . This is the best I can do . But it was horrific . After the wasp did what it had to do , it left the cicada , perhaps eggs already implanted in its belly . We the hawk watchers left it under a bench . I will see what happens tomorrow after work . I hope that paralyzed cicada is still there tomorrow . I mean that wasp was dragging it around as it was injecting it with its rear  end . It was very exciting !

                                (Fascinating Cicada Hawks?  So I looked them up. DB)
"Sphecius speciosus, often simply referred to as the cicada killer or the cicada hawk, is a large digger wasp species. Cicada killers are large, solitary wasps in the family Crabronidae. The name may be applied to any species of crabronid which uses cicadas as prey, though in North America it is typically applied to a single species, S. speciosus. However, since there are multiple species of related wasps, it is more appropriate to call it the eastern cicada killer. This species occurs in the eastern and midwest U.S. and southwards into Mexico and Central America. They are so named because they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them. In North America they are sometimes called sand hornets, although they are not hornets, which belong to the family Vespidae. Cicada killers exert a measure of natural control on cicada populations and thus may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which their cicada prey feed."
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus

Happy Hawking of Whatever Kind!
                    D.B.

Stella Hamilton- Saturday in the Park with Pale Male and His Progeny, Milkweed Ecosystems, Telescoping Insect Penises, and the Bats Move

7:00PM  Fledgling in a tree behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

7:00 PM  Fledgling on the roof of the Met.

7:01 PM   The back view.

7:03 PM  Back again with focus on possible prey.

7:28 PM  Second fledgling hunting.  (Look at that full crop!)

7:50 PM  Pale Male hunting on the Bridle Path.

8:04PM  Pale Male, the Monarch of Central Park, surveys the Bridle Path.

Many thanks to Stella for stalking Pale Male and Company!

Next up The World of Milkweed

According to Betty Jo of California, who told us her Milkweed growing experiences, she too has the same red beetles in her Milkweed in California and that Milkweed has it's own ecosystem.  So today I decided to look a little closer.

And there are those red beetles, well a pair of those beetles anyway copulating, again on the Milkweed.  Then I asked myself are they really copulating or ...are they doing something else.  I looked it up.  Yup that's copulation for certain kinds of insects-the male and female gentalia come into contact, put rather superficially.

First off there are ordinarily some courtship rituals.  The male may wiggle his antenna in a fetching manner or stroke and nibble  the females legs or maybe even vibrate his genitalia to stimulate her.  When she is receptive, the male's aedeagus  extends from his abdomen.  That's part one.  Part two the "penis" telescopes out of that and goes deep into the female's reproductive system where it deposits sperm.   

After photographing  the copulating beetles, I continued by investigation and BINGO, I found some eggs. Well, they look like possible eggs. Of course I can't be positive these are beetle eggs or even eggs at all.  Though I've been seeing pairs of red beetles copulating on the milkweed for some weeks so they could conceivably be red beetle eggs.

Then I see an ant with the eggs.  Ant eggs?  Unless ants tend eggs by biting them which seems unusual  I'd say this ant is predating the eggs.  

Yet another level of activity.

About then, I see a particularly offensive clump of crabgrass in the unmulched area.  I walk over and give it a big tug...and what do I see?

 In the middle of a line of ubiquitous Chinese Elm seedlings is TA DA, a Milkweed seedling.

 I glance up at the house and wonder about the little bat colony under the eaves.  For the last several nights I've been trying to see them fly out so I could count them.  Nothing has happened.  I stand here with a camera and nothing happens.  

Now I've watched several fly outs from attics of hundreds of bats who seemed to care less that people were watching but as it turns out some colonies care very much.  And mine was one of them.  They appear to have moved.  I read today that if you have a bat house, mine arrived today, you shouldn't look at it for more than a few seconds at a time or the bats might move.  Well these guys didn't even wait for the bat house stare.  Sigh.

Though later, at  8:45 PM, fly out time,   while I was watering, I glanced up and saw a couple of bats fly over the house, right to left.  It appears that the bats didn't exactly move, they've just shifted their exit to the other side of the house.  No, I did not stare at the flying bats.  Though they probably don't mind as much when you haven't seen them exit...at least I hope not.

We'll see what tomorrow brings...as always.

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

Stella Hamilton Documents Fledgling Bugsy's Big Moment and Attention Bats-Mayflies Swarm Over the Midwest

 Photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/
                                     Pale Male keeping watch.


 Stella Hamilton actually got photos yesterday of Bugsy's big moment. 

 6:24 PM  I saw Bugsy catch and kill this squirrel

                     6:36 PM  Hawk and yummy squirrel.

 6:40 PM  Bugsy jumped off a low branch like Batman and boom! He killed it instantly.

In other words a perfect kill.  Bugsy is good.


And just in from Robin of Illinois, the mayfly hatch is so huge you can see it on radar!
http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/mayfly-hatch-overwhelms-minnesota-wisconsin/ 

"Mayflies swarm Mississippi river

 

"On the evening of July 20, 2014 mayflies hatched along along the Mississippi river between Minnesota and Wisconsin in such great numbers that they were picked up by radar resembling light rain. the hatch began around 8:35pm. According to the National Weather Service: "this particular emergence was that of the larger black/brown Bilineata species. The radar loop below shows the reflected radar energy (reflectivity) from 8:35 pm to just after midnight. The higher the values (greens to yellows) indicate greater concentrations of flies. Note how the swarm is carried northward over time."

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

Stella Hamilton's Pale Male Fledgling Report and Part 3 of Sick Little Brown Bat

6:52PM  Beauty mark on chest.
 Now isn't that fascinating a single dark brown feather?  Great ID mark if it remains.

6:55PM  Foraging along Fifth Avenue.

Is that the same dark spot on the chest?  Is it a dent, a dark feather, or part of lunch?

6:58PM  More grub

7:55PM  Pale Male roosts on Jackie Os

7:57PM  More Pale Male 

Part 3 of Sick Little Brown Bat

1:11 PM  When last we saw Little Brown Bat he'd disappeared off the top of the bird house and then reappeared head first from behind the bird house.  Now he's shifting so his head is down.

1:11:38PM He's scrabbling with his right foot attempting to get purchase on the wood.  He seems to be feeling much better after water and food.  I begin to wonder if with the trees missing from the storm reducing the shade exponentially and my inadvertent pulling of the weeds in the flower bed whether little bat is getting too hot in his roost these days.

 1:15 PM Then he looks to be itching his side with the other foot and gets a lower position for that foot.

1:16 PM Then bat appears to be sleeping.

5:39 PM Four hours later and he's still sleeping and he hasn't crawled onto the bird house looking unwell.  Water and food available.

5:40PM  Did he shift a little?

5:57PM  I bring him a piece of orange in case he likes fruit and he's lowered himself down behind the house.

 6:04 PM He appears to be even lower.

6:15PM  I continue to monitor but he remains asleep.

6:16PM Ruby-throated Hummingbird arrives and sits on a branch.

 His head shifts slightly.  He's watching something.

Yup.  And he's watching something that flies.

And off it goes to the south.

6:33PM  He's still sleeping peacefully.

7:26PM  He's still there napping.  I suspect he'll fly out at about 9PM.  

8:11PM  See the dark spot?  He's still there.

9:03PM  Too dark now for pictures.  He's still  sleeping

10:00PM  Can't see if he is there or not.

Morning....he's gone!  

Well he did fly out and I suspect that now that he feels better he's chosen a new more hospitable roost.

Bon voyage Little Brown Bat!  Take care of yourself!

Donegal Browne