An Afternoon with Pale Male and Octavia and What's in the Bowl of That Nest...and Why?

 Photo courtesy of http://www.palemale.com/
  Here are longtime Hawk Watcher Stella Hamilton's  saturday notes from the field-- Pale Male and Octavia of the 927 Fifth Avenue nest.

Dear Donna, 

 I spent most of the afternoon hawk watching at the Hawkbench.  

I arrived at approximately 3:15. Palemale was on the nest, and Octavia was soaring . 

 3:28 Palemale leaves nest and meets up with Octavia on her favorite mating tree , an oak tree on 76th and 5th, and guess why .... To mate.  Palemale then flies off .and 

3:31 Pale Male returns to nest at with a twig and places it in deep part of the nest bowl. 

3:55  Both hawks soar. 

4:00 Palemale flies with small prey and eats it on terrace of building we call the ship or boat building. Plenty going on here. 

I decided to check out what's happening at the Plaza Hotel. 

4:20 I arrived at the Plaza and stayed there for about a half hour , but saw no hawks at all. I walked back up town to watch Palemale and Octavia. 

There was a lot of soaring and nest time together . 

At 5:05, both hawks were on the nest, then Octavia leaves nest and flies to her favorite mating tree on 76th. No mating observed at this time. 

Octavia decides to roost on tree on 72nd and Palemale roosts on tree on East Drive a few yards west of Alice in Wonderland. 

Stella Hamilton 

Keep 'em coming Stella!
Photo courtesy of http://www.palemale.com/

NEXT UP, NEST LINING

When it comes time to line the bowl of their nests, many NYC hawks peel the inner bark from trees as their material of chose for cozy nest bowl lining.   I've watched Pale Male, Lola, Charlotte, Junior, Athena, and Riverside Mom all do it in person and many other NYC  hawks via photo.  Therefore I'd thought without really thinking about it,  that bark was, when available, the material of choice for nest bowls by urban Red-tails.

And that dear readers is what one gets for thinking something without really thinking about it.  One must watch for those sneaky assumptions.  

 As it turns out, my thought was just that,  an assumption.  And it was wrong.

I would have thought that the Franklin Institute Hawks would be using the inner bark of trees for bowl lining too.  Not so.


 The male T2 has lined the bowl with evergreen boughs.  Now I can't say for sure that there aren't some strips of bark underneath but it looks pretty twiggy below the needles from here. 

In Pale Male's nest in past years, it is dry grass from one of the adjacent terrace's flower boxes that is gleaned and laid over the bark.

Now I'm told there  are deciduous trees reasonably close to the nest site at the Franklin. Therefore it would appear that the bowl lining of choice there, as opposed to making do as the deciduous bark isn't available, for this pair is evergreen.

My question then is, was this lining chosen after experimentation or was this the lining of say, one or the other hawks natal nest?


Donegal Browne

Just look at Octavia's Wingspan Compared to Pale Male's!

 Photo courtesy of palemale.com.

Pale Male, (left), Octavia (right)

Do you remember that in one of the emails from NYC Hawkwatcher Katherine Herzog, she mentioned how huge Octavia is.  

I believe Kat compared her wing span to that of almost a  Turkey Vulture in comparison to your usual Red-tailed Hawk wing span.

And Kat wasn't exaggerating!  Look above at the size and wing span difference between she and Pale Male!

The rule of thumb is that in reverse sexual dimorphism in hawks that the female is about a third larger than the male. 

Agreed, Pale Male, is a smaller swifter model of a Red-tail male, but still Octavia is hugely larger than he in comparison. 

Also a heads up, both hawks have been seen bringing bark to the nest to line the bowl.  It won't be long now before Octavia will be up there on 927 Fifth Avenue full time! 

Sally of Kentucky asks if Downtown Male might be Pale Male Jr?  It is possible as that was his previous territory but though this hawk does look like Pale Male facially, I think he may be a little darker than Junior  though I'd have to watch him in person to be sure one way or the other.  Junior had a way of holding his body that is distinctive.

Also keep in mind that the newest research found that Red-tailed Hawks often return to their natal territory to nest.  Therefore Downtown Male might be a hawk that came from a nest of Charlotte and Junior's or even Pale Male and Lola's nest on Fifth Avenue.

Happy Hawking!
P.S.  Scroll down for a previous posting from earlier this evening.    

Donegal Browne