The Hamilton Central Park Hawk Report for 7/20 and 7/21 Plus Another Little Brown Bat Saga!

Stella Hamilton report for 7/20/2014   6:07 PM
This is the only picture I have of the hawks from today. Pale Male.  The babies were very quiet . I saw one baby  soaring over the east drive on 79 th street .
 I will try again tomorrow after work. 

And indeed Stella did go out again today and had much better luck.

               Hamilton report for 7/21/2014

7:03 PM  Fledgling on Backstop 6 of the Great Lawn. 

7:21 PM   Play ball! 

TANGENT- There is something about a ball that tends to attract the attention of the young of many species and sometimes the not so young as well.  Robin of Illinois sent in a video of a turtle and a dog playing ball.  And the turtle takes no prisoners...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=186603724690776&fref=nf

              7:24 PM Back Stop 4
What did I say about balls?  Guess who has the best view of the ball game?  I remember one afternoon in Morningside Park when both of Isolde and Tristan's eyasses sat on the ball field fence side by side and watched the game for awhile.

               7:25PM Play ball.  
              Fixated on the ball yet again.  I love it.

  THE RETURN OF LITTLE BROWN BAT!

  I came around the corner of the house to turn off the outside water spigot and hanging on the wall of the house was Little Brown Bat.  I made a bee line for the house and the camera.
2:11:06 PM  When I got back little bat had gone round the corner to the N wall and was climbing up the wall by way of the wisteria.

 2:11:13 PM  Little Bat leaves the wisteria for the brick.

 2:11:15 PM  He's moving far faster than the last time we saw him.

2:11:16 PM

2:11:18 PM  He's really climbing quite fast now.  But why is he out and so exposed in the daytime in the first place? 

2:11:23 PM  It looks like he's heading for the eaves of the house which makes sense.  There will be shade there most of the day.

2:11:35 PM  Still putting forth a yeoman's effort.

2:12:01 PM  Almost to the eaves!

Blogger doesn't want to take anymore photos on this post so stay tuned for The Mystery Of Little Brown Bat.

 Next post!

Donegal Browne

The Pale Male Fledgling Report from Stella Hamilton (Scroll Down for a FLASH! Concerning the Divine Isolde of the Cathedral)

All Photos by Stella Hamilton  7/7/2014

4:50PM  Octavia eating a pigeon on the Metropolitan Museum.

5:23PM  Fledgling hunting behind the Met.

5:25PM  Pale Male hunting at the reservoir

5:33PM  Can you see the baby on the obelisk? 
(Obviously it is under construction.  The obelisk not the fledgling. DB)

5:43PM Now you can really see him

6:21PM  Still on the obelisk.

(Still there.  A smart fledgling figures out early on to make themselves obvious, by begging and in obvious sight lines to any parent who might be bringing a food delivery. DB)

Many thanks to Stella for getting out and finding those fledglings!

There are two previous posts of the day, one a FLASH concerning the Divine Isolde of the Cathedral nest.  Keep scrolling down and the following post is an update from Hawkwatcher Charmain D. on a Fifth Ave. Fledgling.


Donegal Browne

FLASH!!! PIPPING AT THOMPKINS SQUARE NEST Plus an UPDATE of Other Hawk and Nature News

 Photograph courtesy of Francois Portmann
5/8th, 6:15am at TSP nest:

Francois Portmann reports that eggs are pipping at the Thompkins Square Park nest.  He also snagged a great photograph from the cam of the eggs piping...something we don't often see on a Red-tail nest.


Note the parents standing on the verge of the nest watching the progress.

STAY TUNED FOR MORE AS IT COMES IN

Photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/
I cannot believe how large and active Pale Male and Octavia's eyasses are already.


Photo courtesy of  Rob Schmunk http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/

Rob Schmunk reports the first sighting of an eyass of Isolde and Norman's at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine nest.  As Rob points out this eyass at first sight is old enough to look back.

I absolutely love this photograph of the eyass.  For more click on the link under the photo.

And how about a look at the Fu Manchu Bunny?
Photograph by Mike Albright

Not only does bunny have a dark curved line as the beginning of his Fu Manchu mustache, his whiskers point down as well.  Plus look at that shockingly arched eyebrow.  Oh my!

Photograph by Mike Albright                            THE PEEK!

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

Prologue: NYC Hawkwatcher Katherine Herzog on Pale Male and Octavia's Behavior from February 27-March 1, 2013 MUCH MORE TO COME FROM TODAY! STAY TUNED!!

 Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Octavia on the 927 nest on February 27, 2013

First a missive from longtime NYC Hawkwatcher Katherine Herzog in regards to the behavior of Octavia uptown and my  hypothesis that reverse sexual dimorphism is a product of female Red-tails fighting each other for the males in a similar way that many mammal males fight each other for the females. 

(For details on the hypothesis see the post below The Flash of earlier today.)

 Katherine Herzog's email sent before she and Stella Hamilton's adventures uptown watching Pale Male's nest and downtown watching the area around The Plaza.

I can only report what I've observed for the past three days, Feb 27 through Mar 1st....Pale Male and Octavia behaving like the consummate couple...flying together, sharing food, mating, sitting together, visiting the 5th Avenue nest together - rearranging the "furniture" and bringing in additional nesting material.  Their bond seems to be very strong.

I am impressed with Octavia's size and wing-span...sometimes when I see her flying she looks as big as a Turkey Vulture!

I don't know but it would not surprise me if the larger female RTHs choose their mates and not the other way around.  If this is so, perhaps they are the Alpha mate in the pairing hierarchy....which would give her authority and preference as to who she mates with....Pale Male, another mate, or possibly, alternating between both. 

 Of course, she would have to settle on one nest to lay and brood her offspring and the Plaza nest looks to be barely a nest (more like a pile from a "Pick Up Sticks" children's game!). 

Given all of Pale Male's experience and apparent good health... I have faith in our old friend to keep his cool and win over the (possibly) flirty female.

Won't be able to follow the Plaza goings on...so will have to depend on other people's observations. 

 [Stella Hamilton took on the duties of downtown observer today.  And Kat took over observation of 927 Fifth Avenue, uptown. D.B.]

As the Zen master said "we'll see".
 

Katherine Herzog 
 

STAY TUNED! MUCH MORE TONIGHT!
 But while you're waiting... another urban Mallard Mom gets human help escorting she and her ducklings through part of Washington DC to water.
 
Photo courtesy of Harald Olsen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/28/ducks-walk-through-dc_n_2783548.html?utm_hp_ref=good-news&ir=Good%20News#slide=2167737
Donegal Browne 

A Disputed Meal, Red-tailed Hawk Fledgling Style

  All photos in this post by Central Park Hawk Observer and photographer Jeff Johnson

Here is the promised tussle sequence of the two fledglings of Pale Male and Zena disputing a meal.  It is believed by some watchers that one of the fledglings was a recipient of a parental delivery of food.  

One fledgling claimed the prey and then her sibling came along and tried to take it from her.  This pretty much par for the course with Red-tail fledglings.

 It is hard to tell but Jeff Johnson, said he thinks it likely that the original holder of the meal is the one  who ended up with it.

Note the feathers raised on the top of the head. 

 
Note both sets of feet with their talons tend to remain on the ground.

And the feet are the business end of a Red-tailed Hawk.  You'd think that they'd bite at each other but in my experience hawks seldom if ever bite anything but their food.

  Doesn't the aggressor appear to be enjoying herself? It apparently doesn't get much better than beating your sibling repeatedly with your wings from behind.

 This appears to me that the quick look back may be a sign that the holder of food is tempted to let go and continue the free for all face to face.

 But she remembers in time not to be tempted into letting go and hunkers down to withstand the onslaught.

  

And stays that way.  DRAT!

It is a very hot day and both fledglings are panting from their efforts.

 
Note that yes, the holder of the prey is mantling it with outstretched wings, but the non-holder has her wings expanded as well to release some heat.

Fine!

And she's back!  Possibly tempting the food holder to take a cheap shot at her back and thus release the goodies?

Not a chance.

And not a feather or a drop of blood appears to have been lost in the interlude.

Jeff Johnson wrote,

I still can't get over how the two fledglings wrestling over that bird meal seemed to be engaged in a life or death struggle...yet looking at the frames shows that they were almost always just bumping one another back to belly. Talons and beaks were not slashing...the one with the bird really looked like he/she was just "recovering a fumble...protecting the football". 

There is a previous post of today so if you've not seen it do continue to scroll down.

Still more to post of this week's Fifth Avenue Fledgling Activities--STAY TUNED!

Donegal Browne

Fifth Avenue Red-tail Fledgling Adventures in Central Park

 Stalwart hawkwatcher Jeff Johnson was again out on Thursday (below) and also Friday (coming soon) tracking down Pale Male and company.  Photographs and the commentary in italics are Mr. Johnson's.

 Pale Male was on his 927 Nest as I approached the Park.

 From the 5th Avenue wall along the Park I could see two fledges perched in one of their favorite trees. North end of the Model Sailboat Pond invisible in the background to give some location perspective.

The north end of the Model Boat Pond is the section that holds the Alice in Wonderland Statue with the Oreo Building and Stovepipe as a back drop.
 

If you are attempting to follow the action with the aid of a Central Park map, what we call the Model Boat Pond will be labeled as The Conservatory Water.  The water is there but they neglected to actually build The Conservatory.

After entering the Park I spent a half hour looking for Pale Male or Zena without success, so I returned to the Sailboat Pond area and found a fledge high in a tree (just right of center in this frame).

She's quite tiny in this shot but if you look carefully you will see a tiny pale beige oval with a belly band slightly behind a branch that veers up and right.  This is a good exercise to train your eye for the next time you're out fledgling hunting.

This fledge is shown a little closer in the same spot here.

 I searched again up to 79th Street where Pale Male was soaring, but he decided to stay too far away for my lens. On the way back to the Kerbs Cafe area there was a fledge now dining on a rat! 

The Cafe is across the water from the Hawkbench and slightly to the north.  On both sides and behind it is a non-pathed area of trees, understory, mulch and some plantings.  Few people tromp around in the plantings there,  so it is a safer place for the fledglings to go about their business than more heavily traveled areas.

Two fledges were developing their hunting skills in some low brush behind the Cafe.

Note the pedestrians and the west edge of the Model Boat Pond in the background.  This is the opposite edge of the water across from the hawkbench.

And you can bet 99% of the people walking by have no idea the fledglings are even there. 


If you were standing at the camera's POV, your back would be roughly over Central Park's stone wall perimeter, directly across the street from the 927 Fifth Avenue  nest.
  

 One fledge was particularly taken with attacking an orange capped plastic bottle.

One of the most endearing and I have to say hilarious behaviors of fledgling Red-tails, as some of you know,  is their practice "killing" of various objects which include but are not limited to plastic bottles, rocks, chunks of wood, thick twigs, and in one case I know of, a rather large athletic shoe.  

The Fledgling leaps on the object with both feet, "the strike", then bangs it soundly and repeatedly on the ground with both feet while hop flapping.  I assume that's "the kill" though adult Red-tails don't bang their prey, they neatly puncture it with their talons to kill it. 


I surmise the innate urge to whack prey on a hard surface gets the job done initially until they figure out that squeezing with their talons is really what it is all about.


Mr. Johnson's Friday adventures with the Fifth Avenue Hawks are coming very soon!

Happy Hawking--
Donegal Browne