Photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/
Hawkwatcher Anna Beth with a Fifth Avenue update!
I knew I would not be able to stay for hours today but I had very lucky timing. I'd just begun to look at the nest with my binoculars when Pale Male flew in from the north to deliver a meal, a pigeon. The eyasses perked up and watched him come in and Octavia got down to work feeding. There wasn't a picky eater in the group!
Next Up from Ann Feldman of Cornell via the Franklin Hawkaholics Facebook page, she said...
No, Big Red at Cornell is not wearing a ball skirt...those are her (big) babies with their heads tucked under her.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=575772959205543&set=gm.10152158300892029&type=1&relevant_count=1
Once again today I went out attempting to see some Sandhill Cranes with colts.
I started out searching the conservation set aside wetland with the pond near where the crane nest had been complete with a guard gander. Well the goose was in place but not a crane or even a crane head in sight. I then went down to the next section of land...more of a grassy meadow if a touch wet.
OH MY! It isn't a grassy meadow. It has turned into a pasture. Note the fresh grass. Yesterday and since early Spring there has not been a bovine in sight. But today? There is a big red steer with some of his friends down the hill. Wow! But still not a crane in sight. I walk up and down the rural road for an hour and a half, checking both sections of land. Not a crane in sight.
Magnolia Warbler...that was nice. Lot's of testosterone filled Red-winged Blackbirds...no cranes.
Which gets me to thinking. Red-wing Blackbirds are very common in this area and particularly in this kind of habitat. there is a male Red-wing sitting atop a stalk or whatever about every 20 feet in marshy areas guarding his territory and his nest, but when is the last time I saw a female Redwing. They are very reclusive. I realize I've perhaps only seen a female once and there has to be a female for every male as the nest at this time of year is what the male is guarding.
That said, I get probably 20 Red-wing males at my feeders on any given day...but no moms. Okay, when the guys are at my feeder who is guarding the territory and the nest?
Just then a bird does a fly-by very close to my head screeching at me in no uncertain terms and lands on a nearby fence. Yikes! Guess who?
It appears to be Mom Red-wing who is giving me grief. Talk about synchronicity. She looks like she's going to come at me again, she's quivering she is so angry. I walk backwards toward the road before snapping her picture.
Then I hear the male calling as he lands in a tree nearly over my head his tail cocking up and down.
Geez, I'm going. I'm going. You were just at my birdfeeder weren't you?
He is not currently grateful at all.
I walk back to the car, pack up my gear, and drive home which isn't really that far away...maybe a quarter mile. But still a disappointing day...well except the Red-wing interlude. That was exciting.
I turn into the driveway and start unloading my cameras. My cell rings. It's another crane watcher, Mike has just arrived and the Sandhills are striding around the newly-become-cattle-pasture like they've been doing it all afternoon.
DRAT!
I shove my stuff back into the car, jump in after it, and take off again.
There they are. Strolling across the back of the pasture trolling for tasty bits.
As the cranes get closer to the cows the female goes down into the little creek bed and the male stands guard keeping an eye on the cows.
Mike having grown up on a farm, reminds me those are not cows. Those are cattle. Right. No big udders. Cattle.
I am then distracted by the cattle...okay what is one of these not cows? A steer. Ahhh. Okay one of the steers has sauntered into the gander pond. For weeks these guys have been hanging out at this little pond. I don't know if there weren't enough female geese to go around or perhaps all their nests were nearby, at any rate they've all been standing around the pond for weeks doing nothing much but standing there, at least while I was around. I suppose they get back to poker and cigars after I leave.
At any rate this steer is now in their pond and everyone of their eyes is on him.
Evidently the collective stare works as steer decides to get out of the pond and go hang with the others.
That's when I look at the others and the "others" are all pretty much looking at me. Wow.
Why?
Mike says, they're curious. If you stand at the fence they'll likely come all the way over to you.
Really?
I stare back. It is then that I realize that even though they are all the same variety they actually look different from each other.
The guy on the left it the kind of guy who is always in need of nap while the one on the far right has just whispered to the one in the center, "You do realize she has the same color hair as we do." And center guy, Says "...Right.."
I'm brought out of my imaginary cattle revery...by "Baw, baw, baaaaawl...."
Littlest calf has lifted his tail and his voice and is frolicking. In fact while the older steers were discussing hair color the little guys have started to rough house.
Wait a minute...where are the cranes?
The cranes are still meandering along the little stream and the sun is getting low. It's time to go.
Who knows what tomorrow may bring if you keep your eyes open?
Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
P.S. Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot, decided to land on my head again today in the laundry room, we may not be quite out of the woods yet.
As I hadn't seen Buster the Black-chinned Hummingbird for several days, I thought he'd traveled on but to my surprise this evening about 6:30PM there he was in the little mulberry tree next to the magnolia and its feeder.
Remember I'd found another Sandhill Crane on a nest while I was watching the one in the middle of the pond?
The "Just Try It" Crane? The grass very soon obscured this nest so my main focus switched to the nest in the pond. Though I still attempted to see this one periodically, and each time I stopped, instead of seeing the crane, on the opposite side of the pond a goose head popped up above the grass each time.
It was 7:15PM, so the light was already fading but today when I stopped...
Instead of the goose head popping up, two crane heads popped up instead.
Then the right head disappeared, but the left remained.
Then she stood and looked down.
And the male stood and suddenly the female's head goes down as a Red-winged Blackbird goes for it.
An Aside: Red-winged Blackbirds appear to be a situational hazard for any creature who frequents wetlands at this time of year. Yesterday I watched two cranes walking across a marshy area and every ten feet or so as they passed from one Red-wing's territory to the next, the previous bird would ease the attack, while the next attacked afresh.
The female begins to browse and the male stands guard...and remember the goose head I kept seeing previously when I stopped? Look at the left side of the photo. There she is.
Goose withdraws slightly. The female eyes her and the male continues to stare at the Red-wing. Then the light fails enough to make even a weak focus possible.
I do hope there is a colt or colts in that long grass. I'll keep checking.
A pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks also stare. A disagreement?
The finale of a discussion about nest placement?
And last but not least...
The Decorah Eaglets
Just in from Jackie of Tulsa-
I'm glad to know that after the 2
electrocution incidents last year, there was a huge effort to retrofit all the
hazards before this season rolled around.
Photo courtesy of Rob Schmunk at
http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/
Isolde, of the St. John the Divine Cathedral nest, feeds one of the two eyasses which have been sighted so far. There is still a possibility that a third eyass, who would be the smallest, may still be in the depths of the nest. Time will tell.
I was under the weather for several days and so did not check on Franny the Sandhill Crane, who was on the nest we've been watching. Well when I went to look yesterday, Franny and her colts had strode off while I wasn't looking.
Sandhill Crane colts are ready to leave the nest after only a few days at which time they take off walking after their parents, learning about which foods to eat.
If you take a few steps east and turn round, this is what you see.
A blue sky and fluffy clouds float in a stream...
Swallows feast on insects overhead.
Now wouldn't flying be grand fun on a summer's day?
Yellow Warblers hunt in the thicket.
And a little further down the road, is the wet meadow where we'd originally seen a second crane nest but the grass became to long to observe it. But there are some interesting things going on here...let's crop this down a little.
The pond is in the left half of the photo. Now look just to the right of pond. There is a goose who has popped her head up, likely on a nest though a few Geese today had goslings.
Now look at the warm brown spot in the grass on the far right.
I think that might be a crane lying in the grass with colts. There is the larger center brown splotch, and up right and up left are two smaller warm brown splotchs.
And then there is the very odd thing that I cannot identify at all in the photograph. Perhaps you can?
What are those white things in the center of the photo...my apologies for the blur. Whatever it is, it is far away and very odd. Any suggestions?
I then began the drive back to town and just as I passed the place where I had seen the two Red-tailed Hawks with faint belly bands perched a Red-tail flew above the car.
Not much of a belly band. She's taunting me. I never could find their nest.
Even this close, not much of a belly band at all.
Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
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?
