Feeding at St Johns Part II

Tristan staring at a little white "something" on the right of the nest. Loose feathers? Part of an eyass? (Bottom right corner of photograph.)

PART II !

6:58:22 Tristan gives a last look, turns quick as a wink and is off the nest. He's stood staring an extraordinarily long time. A delivery to Isolde while she's sitting on eggs usually takes 3 to 6 seconds.

6:58pm Isolde stares into bowl. (Most likely both parents were staring into the bowl during the time we could only see Tristan's posture of staring as he was blocking the view of Isolde. Staring at the eyasses together is typical of RT parents....other species too, come to think of it, including humans.

6:59:51pm Isolde moves prey into position and begins to feed center.

7:04 Isolde makes feeding motions toward right corner of nest. She fed about 4 minutes in other position.

7:07pm Isolde hugely stretches her tail and wing. She fed 3 minutes in second position.

7:08pm Isolde gets into the nest and looks fixedly into the right corner. Eyass?

7:09pm Not a twig moving up there. Rob reappears and reports that Tristan is back up the block again. He's just sitting on his branch looking around, seemingly hanging out. I suggest that maybe he's actually scanning, memorizing prey patterns for another day.

7:17pm Well, still nothing is happening up there that I can see so I decide to go check out Tristan sitting on his branch and see if he's scanning prey patterns for tomorrow.

7:21pm Whoa! Tristan has another rat! Looks to be getting rid of the uneatable bits and starts vigorously pulling at it and taking bites. Sooooo, he wasn't just scanning for another day after all. Guess one rodent wasn't enough for the whole family so he's having his now. I take a couple pictures than realize I should call the others in case they want to come up the block.

All of a sudden, Tristan reverses his direction on the branch, rat still in talons, and looks at the nest with focus. Then he starts to tense as if he's about to take off. Oh dear, he's going to head for the nest. I better get there. I pick up the tripod and start hotfooting it down the hill. "Hey Guys, he's got another rat!" Sam calls back, "What?" I yell again, "Another rat, ANOTHER RAT!" I plop down the tripod, out of breath, "And I think he'll be coming this way!"

7:29:58 And there he is right on cue! Tristan flies 0n to the front of the nest from the tree where he'd prepared the second rodent and had a few bites.

Go to the next post down for Part III.

Donegal Browne

Divine Madness, Friday April 27, 2007

Part III- The Latter Part of the Day
(Due to the vagaries of blogger, the last segment must be done first to avoid the sequence being posted in reverse order. Parts II and I coming your way soon. D.B.)

7:29:59pm Tristan stares down into the bowl of nest with rat in beak.

7:30:28 pm Tristan offers Isolde some rat and then glances back as he skirts Isolde and starts to go behind St. Andrew's head and out of sight. I pick up the equipment and start making it towards the west side of the nest.

The west side of the nest. Where's Tristan?

7:36pm Trotting fast, I turn onto the verge of the sidewalk by the parking sign that marks the spot where one has a clear view of the west end of the nest, get the tripod off my shoulder, and look up, expecting Tristan. What? No Tristan on this side! When I started my sprint to get to this spot he'd visibly been coming this way. Where did he go? All then becomes clear as a second later he flies off the front of the nest. While I'd been running this direction, he'd turned round and gone the other way. He's a very clever bird. Or is this an example of hawk humor?

Tristan soars out and lands with his rat portion in a tree inside the park across from the Plant Pavilion. He looks at his dinner, begins to eat, and Rob, Sam, and I all begin to converge in his direction. Rob gets there first, and starts shooting pictures. Sam isn't far behind with the notebook, scribbling furiously. Some passers-by start to chat with Rob, he points out the hawk, the visitors chatter. A group of viewers begins to form. Tristan has a few bites of rat, looks at the accumulating crowd and flies off to the southwest through the treeline. To, no doubt, have his bedtime snack in peace and settle into one of his high roosts. For by now it is sunset after all. I take one last look at St Andrew, the nest is quiet. There is no movement nor sound. The family has settled in for the night. But don't be fooled that Tristan and Isolde have let down their guard. Tristan will roost in a tall place where he has a full view and straight flight path to the nest. Isolde, like all good hawk mothers, will spend most of the night awake. She'll sleep for perhaps fifteen seconds then spend the next minute or so awake, aware, and vigilant. She will chuck to her young when they are restless. She will scan the territory and keep eye contact with Tristan in his tall tree and he with her through the long night and into the morning. Then Tristan will fly out and once again begin his day long hunt to keep his family fed. And Isolde will continue to warm the eyasses, protect them from rain, and when they wake with empty crops, tear tiny bits of meat, and ever so gently place them with her razor sharp beak ever so carefully into the open hungry mouths of their young.

Donegal Browne

The Pale Male and Lola Discussion

No Pale Male is not wearing lipstick. He's just brought Lola her dinner and he has shall we say a little residue on his beak. Which in a few moments he will turn round and rub off on the masonry of 927 Fifth Ave. Currently though he looks down at the cradle.

Speaking of the cradle, the irreplaceable Pale Male and Lola, and that third nest failure in a row, the discussion has begun as to what went wrong, what could be done, or even if anything should be done to rectify the situation on www.mariewinn.com/ The website of the irrepressible Marie Winn, original Central Park hawk watcher and author of the beautiful book, Red-tails In Love.

Check it out.

Okay, finally I can now get my photos to come up on the computer, so honest, the report and photos for Friday, the day we saw definitive feeding activity will be up soon!

Donegal Browne