Restless Pip? What is Violet Doing? A Scrum of House Finches Maul Their Father, and Spring's Mallards

NYU Washington Square Red-tails Hawk Cam, courtesy of
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/ask-about-pip-the-juvenile-hawk/#preview
Pip is very restless.

He can't seem to settle in.

.
Up. He appears to be trying to preen.


Stretch.

Down.

Up again. He moves to the other section of the nest. Is Violet preening him?














Up again.




Asleep.

There was a tremendous cacophony of chirping outside. I went to the glass door and a scrum of nearly fledged House Finches were mobbing their father.


That is, all but the one at the top, who had already figured out the self-feeding lesson and was quietly, from an aloof position, shelling and chewing the heart of sunflower seeds.

The rest are fixated on the male.






Dad has had enough and flies off. Resituating himself in few moments on another perch while he demonstrates sunflower seed eating technique.





After being screamed at in the face, Dad gives in and he feeds everyone, including the one who is perfectly capable of eating from the feeder himself.

Photograph by Paul R. Anderson

Photograph by Paul R. Anderson
It wouldn't be Spring without Mallard Ducklings.

Pale Male, Ginger Lima, Isolde, Norman, Washinton Square's Violet and Bobby, John Blakeman on Florida Eyasses Plus the Deer Guards the Goose's Nest

Photo courtesy of palemale.com/

After a day that included fighting off a Peregrine Falcon in front of her nest, Ginger Lima does the cute cocked head posture. But if you look into her eyes, you still wouldn't want to mess with her, coquettish posture or not.

Pale Male flies over 927 Fifth Avenue

The Fifth Avenue formel still hasn't taken to the nest. In fact it appears she prefers to spend a good bit of time standing vigil at her outpost on the west side of Manhattan, from one of Lola's favorite morning perches-the Beresford.

Photo courtesy of Rob Schmunk, http://bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com/
Morningside Park Hawks, Norman (right) has brought Isolde, who has begun sitting the St. John the Divine Cathedral nest, a nice juicy rat for dinner and is now watching her eat it.

For more on The Divines from Rob Schmunk, click the link above.

Photo courtesy of Christopher James/N.Y.U.

Well, it turns out the window ledge nest of the Washington Square Pair has stuck. And not only stuck but Bobby and Violet are the proud parents of three, count 'em, eggs!

They chose well, as the window and office overlooking this particular ledge belongs to N.Y.U. president, John Sexton and he likes them. A lot!

President Sexton has given the NYTimes City Blogs permission to mount a camera inside said office and now there is a Hawk Cam trained on the nest.
If you can't get out to one of the urban nests in person, there is now a fallback--http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/hawk-cam-live-from-the-nest/

Many thanks to Rob Schmunk of the Bloomingdale Village Blog for the heads up.

Photo courtesy of wgrz. com/

When the goose nesting in the above urn lost her mate, this deer took up the gander's duties as nest protector. Fascinating.

From Robin of Illinois--

http://www.wgrz.com/news/daybreak/article/117200/10/Bambi-Protects-Mother-Goose

More on the Florida Red-shouldered Hawk Case
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/sun_coast/dive-bombing-hawk-040511?obref=obinsite

One of those attacked, is a life-long birder, and he stated:

"I just feel sorry for the bird cause he's got no place to go. He's just defending his little piece of the rock. Habitats are shrinking so much, they've become more aggressive," Canterbury continued."

And from Ohio hawk expert, John A. Blakeman-

The removal of Red-shouldered Hawk newly-hatched eyasses from the Florida nest is ridiculous. Those birds haven't got a chance to ever survive in the wild. The photo shows a forceps, probably with food. Those little things will imprint in five-minutes to some human handler. And who, where, when, and how are these birds to be hacked? Without proper and effective hacking, there is no chance they will ever survive in the wild --- if they so much as live to fledging.

You can't just grab some newly-hatched hawk eyasses out of a nest, bring them inside and feed them for 30 days and then toss them out into the wild. I could go on at length about this, but it just won't work unless there is a full-time dedicated staff familiar with the raising of hawk eyasses in captivity, with Red-shouldered Hawk feeding puppets, along with a proper hacking site. This all looks well and good. The results will be so different, I fear.

Sincerely,

John A. Blakeman

Thank you, John.

Donegal Browne