Riverside Fledges, Pale Male and Ginger Lima Update, First NYC Peregrine Fledge of the Year and Is There Really Another Seed Eating Robin?

Photo courtesy of palemale.com The classic new fledgling hawk stare at a human. There is no fear in their eyes and they look directly into your camera lens looking at your eye looking at them, with just a hint of Go Ahead, Try it in their expression. It is a priceless moment in which you remember all the reasons that you watch hawks and why they are so important to the urban landscape. It gives delight of the kind that gives a shiver up your back and makes the hair on your arms stand on end.

BOTH RIVERSIDE EYASSES ARE NOW FLEDGLINGS--Out in the world at large, or at least the world of Riverside Park, being fed and trained by their mother. Most nests with two eyasses would have the benefit of a parent each to teach hunting techniques and to bring "carry out" meals. But as most of you will remember, Riverside Dad died of rat poison, when these two were only a few days old. Riverside Hawk Watchers, wildlife rehabber Bobby Horvath, and the NYC Parks Department came through and saved these two from likely starvation by supplementing Riverside Mom's hunting with handily placed fresh frozen rats and quail.

Have you written a note to Adrien Benepe, Commissioner of NYC Parks asking that all poison be removed from Red-tailed territories from February through July or later if there is a late hatch? If not or you are ready to shoot off a second missive as nothing has happened yet, get going!

For particulars on the rat poison vs Red-tail Emergency in NYC plus the hawks of name who have died due to this debacle, click the link below!

http://palemaleirregulars.blogspot.com/2011/05/for-red-tailed-hawks-of-nyc-any-meal.html

And for those who know about all the deaths, but have just been slothful or horrendously busy find the email link and the U.S. Mail address below.

Do it NOW, or do it AGAIN! There are as of this moment, inexperienced Red-tail youngsters bumbling around NYC parks killing rocks and sticks for practice and have no idea why that rat might be acting funny and should NOT be eaten!

Lives are in the balance.

You can fill out the on-line form, which limits you to 150-words:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/contact_us/html/contact.html

Or get out those writing implements out, computer or good ole handwriting on stationary and get to it!

Honorable Adrian Benepe
Commissioner or Parks and Recreatio
The Arsenal
Central Park
830 Fifth Avenue
NY, NY 10065

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
And the second fledgling practicing more branching and staying up out of harms way above the swirl of humans and dogs.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
And who should be flying in with a pigeon for her fledglings but the hardest working hawk Mom in New York City. This bird deserves such praise for her dedication to her young. Though loosing her pair bonded mate, a very serious thing for a hawk at any time, let alone so soon after a hatch- she carried on through her own loss and has made sure Riverside Dad's genes will go out into the world for one last time.

She did and is doing her part, remember to do yours so it will never happen again.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com

And here we are back in Central Park at 927 Fifth Avenue. You could be sitting on the Hawk Bench and have this view, though it would be a bit smaller with the naked eye.

Speaking of genes, once again today I was struck by the similarity in the physicality of Isolde of the Cathedral Nest and Ginger Lima. Is G.L. a former resident of that uptown nest?

We'll likely never know without a DNA study, but as Isolde and Norman have been periodically hatching urban savvy young hawks uptown, it is possible.

Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Ginger Lima sets to work, methodically feeding the newest set of urban eyasses. The near miracle hawk young of 927 Fifth Avenue. Pale Male has done it again with Ginger Lima's help!

AND from pro photographer and birder Francois Portmann--
Hey Donna,

First peregrine fledges of 2011 in Manhattan
At 55 water street.

Francois

There are pictures but Francois and I have had a bit of a data transfer problem this evening so the photos will be coming soon!

Photo by Karen Anne Kolling
REGARDING SEED EATING ROBINS FROM KAREN ANNE KOLLING OF THE GONZO DECK IN RI.

I can't say with certainty that this is a seed-eating robin, because the supermarket seed mix is called Fruit and Berry, but I have never seen anything but sunflower seeds and other seeds in it.

I've also seen robins make off with shelled peanuts. The one time one tried to eat one on the deck, he was not making progress before he flew off with it.

Meanwhile, a fledgling sparrow did the feed me number to an adult grackle, yikes. The grackle ignored him and the fledgling hopped off to an actual sparrow parent. Normally on the deck the only bird contention is the smaller ones make way for the larger ones, but a year or two ago I did see a grackle flip over a little sparrow who was next to him and the grackle was obviously going to go for his abdomen so I went out there howling like a banshee and they both took off. I hope the grackle's talons had not caused any puncture wounds, otherwise the sparrow looked okay.

Thanks or the new information Karen. I suppose the berries would be dried up and perhaps seed-like? Could you check the ingredients on the bag and see for sure there are no berries in it?

You no doubt saved sparrow. I don't know how sharp a Grackle's toenails are but their beaks are very sharp. I have seen them ambush fledgling sparrows in Central Park and eat them.

Donegal Browne

P.S. I'm still looking into Pale Male's foot.

Blakeman on Broken Beaks, Red-tail Eyass, 6 Wolves Shot

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/animal_rescues/
(**** for brains, perhaps?)


BLAKEMAN ON BROKEN RAPTOR BEAKS
As many of you may know, the hooked portion of the Riverside Mom Red-tail's beak is no longer there. According to Lincoln Karim's report, she is able to eat small rodents that can be swallowed whole but something that must be torn, such as a pigeon, is very difficult for her to eat.

Obviously there is concern. Raptor biologist, John Blakeman, addresses the issue in another of his wonderfully informative pieces.

Donna,

I've never seen this in a wild hawk. It's very curious. The bird must have really smashed its head into a hard object, almost surely while flying.

The hook of a hawk's bill is very hard and strong. It would take a lot of force to break it off.

There is the very outside possibility that it was bitten off when it captured a squirrel.

Falconers often have to trim the length of hawks' bills. Just yesterday I clipped off about 1 mm of a fellow falconer's Red-tail I was caring for. The distal, tip end of the bill is all dead tissue. But at the base, above the lower jaw, is the "quick," the living, vascularized tissue from which the bill grows.

Many years ago, I recall clipping a bit more than just the distal tip of my first Red-tail. I clipped into the quick, and it bled rather profusely. This New York bird would have had lots of bleeding when it lost the bill tip.

I'm certain that the hook will eventually grow back out. But it could take a year or more.

Without the hook, the bird will continue to have difficulty tearing off flesh to eat. Eating squirrels will be virtually impossible, as they have very tough, almost impenetrable skin.

Obviously the bird has learned to live with its disability. But if it lays eggs and tries to feed young eyasses, it will fail. It will be impossible (I think) for it to delicately pull off small tidbits of flesh that newly-hatched eyasses can swallow.

--John Blakeman

Gray Wolf, Canis lupus, Courtesy of http://www.ua.dnr.wi.gov/
From R. of Illinois--

SIX WOLVES SHOT DEAD AND COUNTING IN WISCONSIN

MADISON, Wis. -- A signal from a radio collar alerted a pilot with the state Department of Natural Resources to the first of six wolves found dead the day before and during Wisconsin's gun deer season...

http://www.channel3000.com/news/18243363/detail.html

Photograph courtesy of Juli, a member of UIFAAOH, Group

Brooklyn's Peggy sent this link so we could check in on how Columbia Campus Hawkmadinejad is doing.

United in Fear and Awe of Hawkmadinejad http://www.facebook.com/photo.phppid=33492608&op=2&o=all&view=all&subj=40127981946&aid=-1&oid=40127981946&id=1010455