The mature Common Milkweed I transplanted is coming along. See the coming blossoms center? Also a couple of interesting insects...
So far so good. Which is more than I can see for my efforts to catch the small bat colony which resides somewhere on or in my house at fly out.
Not a bat in sight though I thought I was watching all the time...okay most of the time, as I got an important text, perhaps at the exact moment I should have been watching.
This is the area under the eaves that the other bats appeared to be coming from on Little Brown Bat fly out night. It is in inky darkness at fly out time so I just periodically and blindly took a picture, and later brought up the image in the photo program with hope to have caught something...which I didn't...yet anyway.
And a very nice tidbit from Central Park Hawk Watcher Stella Hamilton. Bugsy the fledgling of Pale Male and Octavia, who was notorious for eating bugs earlier in his fledglinghood actually brought down a squirrel today on her own! Squirrels being no easy prey as they have extremely tough, hard to puncture skin and very sharp teeth. Bugsy as it turns out is quite precocious.
AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST...
SO...YOU THINK YOU WANT A PARROT?
Yes Ladies and Gentleman Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot ran amuck while I napped having inadvertently fallen asleep with the parrot at large in the house.
In the past this hasn't been a problem as Silver didn't, for whatever reason, go into the kitchen on his own. Well this day he obviously did and when he heard my footsteps approaching from the other side of the house, I heard a little parrot voice saying, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
At the sound, I was filled with dread. It has to be something really egregious before Silver apologizes before I even appear on the scene.
Note the pile of lime jello on the stove top and a smaller pile of lemon on the counter. Silver was standing between them apologizing with bits of teabag clinging to his chest. The dog was snacking on the coffee cake on the floor and Squirrel the Cat was sitting on the counter, left, hoping for Silver to dispense something he'd like very soon.
Therefore think very carefully about your patience level and how much you can take before the lifelong decision of a very smart feathered friend who cannot help but open the cupboard when you're distracted, chunk things out and chew them.
But as the pet is a parrot, at least he apologized...in English.
Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
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
All Pale Male/Octavia Fledgling Photos by Stella Hamilton
Once again long time hawkwatcher and blog contributor Stella Hamilton was out in Central Park checking up on Pale Male, Octavia, and their fledglings. Many thanks for her photos and commentary.
5:06PM I wasn't sure if it was a hawk or a turkey I was looking at when I found this fledgling she looked so big . This is a
baby on the ground eating a pigeon. One other sib on tree in vicinity
screaming.
5:07PM
Baby with yummy pigeon. Food fight about to hatch again ?
5:11PM What can I say, This is a big bird.
Fledgling mantles pigeon.
5:11:30PM What the...?
5:15PM Fantail Hawk?
5:23PM Second fledgling (the paler headed one, likely a male) finishes the left over pigeon.
5:29PM Pale Head up a small tree after meal.
5:45PM Out for a stroll amongst picnic-ing patrons of Central Park.
(And people who have the savvy not to toss any food the little hawks way, thank goodness. Hawkwatchers are vigilant about this in particular as a young hawk who learns that people are a source of food, is a hawk in trouble. DB)
5:46PM Are you sleeping?
6:03PM I am FULL! All pictures taken near Glade Arch.
(Just look at that stretched crop! DB)
6:52PM VERY DANGEROUS! Fledgling almost hit by a taxi at Fifth and 77th.
(During the early years, one of Pale Male's fledglings was hit by a cab and killed. All hawkwatchers could do was retrieve the body.)
7:01PM Safe on the Mongolian Mission Banner!!!!
Many thanks to Stella Hamilton for her report.
Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
Photo by Stella Hamilton
Stella has done it again. She's tracked down Pale Male and Octavia's fledglings over near the Great Arch.
5:53PM Fledgling attempts to catch a squirrel in a tree.
One of the first lessons Central Park Fledglings learn is that they can't catch a squirrel in a tree. I've never even seen an experienced Red-tail working solo nab a squirrel in a tree. The squirrel just scuttles to the other side of the trunk or if on a branch he zips under the branch when the hawk attempts to grab him. Youngsters have to learn that a squirrel has to be on the ground to get caught.
Experienced hawks use stealth. They sit and wait for a squirrel to go to ground and that's when they swoop in.
Photo by Stella Hamilton
6:08PM Two of the Fledglings look for scraps.
While waiting for dad to "bring the bacon" most often these days a squirrel or a rat, the youngsters look for scraps and or mimic the killing of mock prey. The "play" of all young predators develops their hunting skills. Young Red-tails leap onto sticks or good sized rocks, grasp them in their talons, then jump up and down with them which is really quite hilarious, and then "kill" the stick or rock.
6:16PM Up in a tree, the third eyass looks to the sky for a delivery. Dad where are you?
Currently Pale Male will be making regular deliveries of prey to the youngsters.
As time goes on the intervals between meals will lengthen as the hawk parents help their progeny to develop hunting skills by bringing on an edge of hunger between food drops.
7:29PM Fledgling finds water in a depression of a branch and drinks it.
Obviously on the nest, eyasses receive all their water needs from the prey they eat.
In fact when I first started watching Red-tails there was no information in the scientific literature as to whether or not Red-tailed Hawks drank water or even bathed.
Central Park Hawkwatchers with their multiple and far more intimate observations of human habituated Red-tails as opposed to scientists who tended toward population counting and the like, saw both these activities but as they weren't of name so were not believed in some circles. Then Ann Shanahan, long time wildlife watcher and photographer in Central Park got photographs of both activities.
Score a big one for the citizen scientist!
More as it happens.
Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
Photos and commentary by Pale Male Irregular Stella Hamilton
6:07PM Here is Pale Male on the ground with a freshly caught rat under his talons .
We were standing along the fence on 5th Avenue and 78th street .
Photos and commentary by Stella Hamilton
Here's the baby eating the rat that Pale Male brought.
This is the fourth post of the day, therefore keep scrolling down. You'll have to go to the next page as well to complete all of today's posts.
To get to the next page, hit "older posts" at the bottom of this page.
Happy Hawking!
D.B.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
For the past two days, we decided to try something new. Longtime hawkwatcher Stella Hamilton, and my daughter also a long time hawkwatcher as she started when she was ten or so and is now in college, Samantha Browne-Walters have been casing Central Park for Pale Male, Octavia, Fledge 1, Fledge 2, and the above hard case, Third who does not want to leave the nest. When Stella or Sam catch one of the hawks in the act they text me an update and I immediately post it on the blog from my computer. Therefore readers can get the latest in real time.
We're still ironing out the glitches for update photos in real time so this evening I'm posting the pix which went with the earlier updates today of the on the spot sightings.
Here we go!
2:31 PM Above, still on the nest is, I'm calling him Third, the eyass who just doesn't want to take the leap. You'll note as usual with a hard case he is spending quite a bit of time alone. Pale Male and Octavia are out hunting and looking after Fledge 1 and Fledge 2 who need more looking after as they are out in the world. Third is safe, and he is fed, visited, and checked on but it is likely pretty lonely up there after the previous crowd before everyone left.
2:33PM Third decides to do a little preening.
But as we will see, Pale Male has decided it is time that Third left the nest....so what does Pale Male do?
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
2:39 PM He soars a giant circle around the Model Boat Pond and above the buildings on Fifth Avenue.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
2:40PM Then Octavia gives it a try by soaring by.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
2:45PM Then here comes Pale Male again.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Third takes some interest.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
2:49PM Nope. Not going to look...
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Full wide display, see its fun. And isn't there a little something in Pale Male's beak?
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Wait! Is that a MOUSE in Dad's beak?
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
2:50PM Okay I'll flap. See I'm making an effort.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Still flapping!
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Where'd he GO!
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
2:52PM He better not be eating it.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Hey, somebody could bring one of those up to me. I could eat a duck.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Fine. I'll preen.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
What now?
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
3:13PM What is that?
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Hmmm.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
I'm eating it.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
3:22PM Pale Male on another circuit flies between Woody and Shipshape.
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
Third sees Pale Male
Photo by Samantha Browne-Walters
And Third starts to flap. There may well be a sympathetic mimicry for wing flapping once eyasses reach a certain maturity. And Pale Male being an experienced parent is well aware of it. Part of his reason for making periodic circuits in full view of Third, perhaps?
I'm still working on extracting Stella's photo from my phone so look forward to Fledge 2 with her rat next post.
To see Sam's original updates from earlier today scroll down and hit older posts to get to the next page.
Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
