The Young Divines Go Public In A Big Way...finally.

5:14pm We've decided on an early start today as it seems to me from experiences last season that the fledges should be doing some ground time by now. Killing rocks, pitching sticks...more active play. Mock hunting. WE've not seen much yet so perhaps they're doing it earlier in the day. We come up the hill. Catbird scolds. Can't see the Catbird, can't see the hawk. Okay, there are two fledglings lets see what other bird noise might be happening up the hill a little further. Oh no, it's the dreaded tree copse that hides hawks so well. We start today's version of getting hawk neck. Just keep looking. Someone just has to be here.


There's a squirrel in a freeze. All the signs are there, but no fledge in sight. We go down and look up. We go up and look down. We lay down and look up.


The Robins keep scolding. We particularly like the one who's been doing it for 45 minutes with a worm remnant in his mouth.

6:25pm Finally, hot and frustrated we go and sit on a bench at an overlook. We scan, we rummange in Albatross wheelie bag for snacks. We scan. Slim pickings. A half bag of peanuts, very old. Wait, a little packet of smoked almonds. We share them out. Not bad. Now we're thirsty. Pull the bottle of soda out of Albatross. Gosh, it really has some condensation. It's just pouring off. That's a no on investigation. Somehow or other the bottom has developed a crushed node. That's not condensation that's Cola. Drink fast. Turn it upside down with the cap on, we'll need some for later. Robert Schmunk appears, and though he doesn't say, undoubtedly wonders what we're doing lazing around on a bench. Feeling sorry for ourselves, we tell him of our lengthy fruitless search.


6:38pm Suddenly an adult Red-tail flies out of the park over Morningside Dr. with a Mockingbird hot on it's tail, then a curve downward and into the trees at the level of the top of the grounds fence, westside of Morningside Dr., somehow coming out the RT is behind the Mocker. It doesn't last long and the Mocker chases the RT over behind the Cathedral and they disappear from our sight. Then Robert spots an Red=-tail on the finiale to the south chapel side of the Cathedral. Dad?

Now, in the process of attempting to see the RT and Mocker chase I'd gone 20 feet further down the hill. In the midst, I hear the Catbird scolding as I had when we first came up the hill but didn't spot a fledge. Juices activated by the past moments. We grab the gear, trot down the hill, and stand listening. It occurs to me that while Robins tend to group scold and do a little hostile dance while scolding, one side, mini-wingflap, otherside mini-wingflap, Catbirds on the other hand are often more immediately confrontational. Even if they don't get right in the hawk's face they still pinpoint their hostility directly at the hawk. Okay, if we can find the hidden Catbird, who we tried to find earlier and failed, but if we now succeed , we will see the hawk. Right?
7:03pm I can hear him and I know he's in there somewhere. But obviously invisible while standing on the sidewalk. I climb up and stand on the concrete part of of the fence and lean over the spikes to look. I finally see him. "Sam, there's the Catbird. Look! Hes looking over there." Sam who'd been trying to stand on the fence concrete and lean over the iron spikes of the fence to see which way the Catbird was looking with me, suddenly says, "Mom, MOM! There she is!." And sure enough there is a Red-tail youngster. There is a tremendous long "screeeeee" sound of talons on bark as the fledgling, wings spread, attempts to brake with toenail power on a very steep downward angled branch. (And by the way, the Catbird had been looking right at her.)


Discovered skidding down a branch by the noise, she hops, she turns, she peers through leaves and from behind branches. What is going on? Aha, there is a squirrel cavorting on the tree and driving her crazy.


The squirrel comes from underneath the branch the fledge has skidded to rest on, circles back down again, then appears on the trunk, and then behind it.


Chittering from squirrel.


Completely motionless, alert to the tiniest tip of squirrel tail protruding from the other side of the tree trunk.

7:20pm I turn to look at a strange passer-by, just in case, and when I turn back the fledge is gone.

7:25PM Still on street level, I get a call from Sam, the young are down at the baseball diamond. It's both fledglings, one on the ground with food, the other on top of baseball field fencing. They are in full view, for those who notice, of the large crowd gathering for a jazz concert in the park.


7:26pm Perching on the Backstop.


Looking at the food. (Notice the difference in build between the two.)


After much hopping about, flapping, and roughing it up around Homeplate, Big Sister grabs the "goods".


And says, "MINE". Little Brother is so stunned by this aggregious behavior that his face melts.
(For the humor impaired, that's a joke. The real reason for posting the shot is to check out the difference in their sizes when Big Sister fluffs up to the size of an overweight raccoon.)

I'm not in the least bit hungry for that disgusting morsel anyway.


Mom is bringing me something much better anyway. So there


Watching the audience.



Watching the Jazz Band.

8:04pm Sitting the fence.


8:09 As the Jazz is drawing to a close Fledge flies into trees near 110th and perches.
8:13pm Fledge back to original area someplace near Picnic Rock.
8:19pm Fledge that was on stump flies east into trees.
8:20pm Another RT being chased by a Mockingbird flies across Park toward Morningside Dr.

8:54pm Mom on Gab, though with the orangey-breast from the sunset, one had to look twice to make sure it wasn't one of the Fledglings

Moonstuck...Movies?

A ring around the moon-Pirate Movie?


Dracula, definitely.


Werewolf...


A Rabbit making bean cakes...?
(Don't worry, it will be significant to topic later. By the way does anyone happen to know what this item was meant to do? I've a suspicion but that's all.)



For those who asked if I had the whole thing....

And from Ben Cacace, http://novahunter.blogspot.com -Nice image of the Moon! The brightest spot at the top of the image is the crater Aristarchus. Below & to the right of A. are 2 light patches side-by-side - the right is Copernicus and the left one is Kepler.

(I've greedily asked him for more lunar topography. D.B.)

Can you still see the image of the "Man in the Moon? Try it.

If you turn your head sideways-ish and look, you may be able to see "the Rabbit making bean cakes" which is what you would see instead of the Man in the Moon, if you grew up on Okinawa.


Many thanks to Robert for his followup sightings to our Saturday Divine Hawk notes.
http://bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com

Divine Hawks and The Moon, Saturday 10 July 2006

Photograph by D. B.

5:43pm As Sam and I walk up Cathedral Hill the park is very quiet. Well quiet as to bird sounds, for this is a popular place for Birthday Parties on a Saturday. There are high pitched excited voices and the scent of charcoal grills. We stop, we listen, we walk down the stairs, we check favorite perches, including The Spike. Nothing. It's warm and humid down in the bowl of the park, and having no luck, we decide to scan from above from an Overlook.

Up on the sidewalk we begin to hear a Catbird across the street. Possibly inside the locked parking lot? Soon we're back to the old viewing gallery for the nest, looking through the chain link fence. I look up...Bingo.


6:04pm There's a Red-tail. It's Dad sitting on the next finial over to the west from St. Andrew and the nest.

6:15pm Another RT is above Dad, curves in, and then just a few feet above his head swoops in and then takes off east for the park.

6:16pm His attention having been gotten, Dad takes off and follows the other RT, possibly Mom as the flying is excellent, into Morningside Park.


Photograph by Samantha Browne-Walters

6:19pm We've hustled over to the park, and we can hear a fledge begging. We scan the trees. Two young men sitting on the bench who don't speak English, excitedly point over and down. There she is, sitting in a Black Locust Tree. I get the scope on her and motion the young men over, shyly they shake their heads. I keep doing the "come here" finger thing until they do come over and when they do look, their faces are illuminated.

6:22pm The Fledge stops begging and looks around. Turns to the right. Preens a little. Then turns her back to us, decidedly looking in the opposite direction.

6:35pm We decide to go down into the park and see her from the front but also to check what she might be focusing on. Another hawk?
This turns out to be a mistake because as we've had to go north for a way down into the park and then go south, we miss her flying where ever it is she went. The Scolders are going at it near The Spike, a favorite perch for several days, though empty now, and the very thick copse of trees in which we're convinced they can sit and we can't see them.

6:46pm Sam catches a glimpse of a Red-tail flying south to north along the path inside the park. Try though we may, to follow and track her down, we are unsuccessful. The Robins and Catbirds have staked out two areas, one just to the north of Picnic Rock and the other the familiar group of trees just inside the park, directly across from the back of the Cathedral.

7:07pm Five Crows "calling" to each other fly diagonally across the Park from SE to NW. I like to think it's a pair and their three youngsters, though I've absolutely no reason beyond the three and two groupings. I'm very glad to see them, though I know they can mob young hawks. It's just their faces and voices have been almost totally missing from our green spaces since West Nile Virus hit the species so hard, and I've felt their lack without even really knowing it.

We keep searching. Sam who had two friends over to spend the night and therefore got little sleep is sitting on a rock looking like she might keel over at any second. She doesn't look happy. We follow every scold. Nothing. We try the "looking somewhere else" technique. We look at flowers, Robins, Catbirds, a black squirrel, we tromp around some more. Nothing helps. Sigh. We exit about 7:40pm.
(Unbeknownst to us, Robert Schmunk will arrive momentarily and a few more sightings will then ensue.)


Saturday's Moon
Photograph by D. B.