The Blizzard Continues, Pale Male, and Myth

Even the feeder is drifted over, and not a feathered or furred creature in sight.


Not quite, two intrepid squirrels are viewing the snowy scene as if they were at the movies.

Tail curled over her back, she eats snow.

Seeing me fill the sunflower seed feeder, she can barely wait for me to go into the house.

Then making sure that I stay inside, she goes to work.

Forthwith, putting her face into the feeder.

Heartened, even though it's still snowing, the Juncos go for the suet. Feeling heartened myself, because the birds are coming out, I decide it's time to go look for hawks. Country hawkwatcher Marian Anderson arrives in her four wheel drive vehicle and off we go.

The snow gets heavier, the wind kicks up, and the drifts begin to grow at an exponential rate. No hawks, not even a sparrow appears.

Marian's cell phone rings. Earlier her grown son Brandon had taken off in his Jeep to help a friend who's car was stuck in the snow at his storage unit. Now, not only is the friend stuck, but Brandon is stuck as well.

A quick change of plans and direction and off we go to mini-storage, the scene of the sticking. We drive into the lot of the car wash, reverse direction so the towing chain can be attached, and back up the rise toward storage---only to become stuck ourselves.

See the fence disappearing into the snow behind Marian and her snow shovel? That is a full sized fence.

Two and half hours of no birds, shovels, sand, chains, digging, and putting shoulders to the rear of cars ensues.

Then I see a bird struggling against the wind. The Starling finally makes it into the cover of the conifer. He disappears and I'm called back to help.

The wind and snow increase. One car freed. And the next time I turn around, there are at least a dozen Starlings perched on the wire behind us. Has a Cooper's Hawk invaded their Spruce flushing the Starlings to the wire? Or have they just become bored after being hold-up for a day and a half and are now watching our car unsticking efforts for something to do. They continue to watch.

The second car is freed and the third, which immediately becomes stuck again. The snow continues and so do we.

Then, thankfully, a near miracle appears coming up the rise. Another friend with a truck and snowplow just happens by. All are freed and so are we-- to make our ways home as night falls.

Tired, slap happy, and perhaps sillily triggered by all the digging, a guote of Gandhi's keeps running through my head, "To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves." Well, I certainly had forgotten myself for awhile but I was sure it wasn't the kind of forgetfulness that Gandhi was talking about.

But watching the snow swirl outside, now brings a quote of Joseph Campbell's to mind, for no reason I can immediately grasp. I can't even recall it properly. I begin looking for it. Found, along with many of his and others which seem to bear on the moment.

"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.

Awe is what moves us forward."

"Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life." Rachel Carson

"Nature abhors a vacuum, and if I can only walk with sufficient carelessness I am sure to be filled." Henry David Thoreau

And more by Joseph Campbell--

"The influence of a vital person vitalizes, there's no doubt about it. The world without spirit is a wasteland."

Pale Male certainly has spirit, now doesn't he?

And then---"Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are artists of one kind or another. The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world."

I think of the evening Pale Male roosted in a tree just like this one and of the people who follow his life--

"...Living myths are not mistaken notions, and they do not spring from books. They are not to be judged as true or false but as effective or ineffective, maturative or pathogenic. They are rather like enzymes, products of the body in which they work; or in homogeneous social groups, products of a body social. They are not invented but occur, and are recongized by seer, and poets, to be then cultivated and employed as catalysts of spiritual (i.e., psychological) well being." Joseph Campbell

Sleep well and dream--

Donna Browne

Lend A Hand To NYC Audubon plus Pale Male and Last--The Blizzard

Pale Male sits on Linda 4. His breast feathers show it's windy up there. Also note his feet. He holds onto the back of the rail with one foot and the front with the other. He's not about to be dumped off. Much too humiliating for the Monarch of Central Park.

REPORT FROM THE BENCH: Pale Male was seen today clipping a twig off a tree in the line along Fifth Avenue.

And next, the newest version of NYC Audubon's Update on the work done on Pale Male and Lola's nest. And once again, many thanks to them!

PALE MALE AND LOLA GET A HELPING HAND FROM NYC AUDUBON

Spring spruce-up came early for Pale Male and Lola, the red-tailed hawk pair nesting on the facade of 927 Fifth Avenue. On January 29th, scaffold workers, directed by New York City Audubon, made adjustments to the nest cradle mounted atop a 12th floor cornice of the building. Although the work done required only a few hours, it could be critical to the birds’ ability to produce chicks this spring and in the years to come.

The beloved red-tailed hawk pair, have had no success breeding chicks since re-establishing their nest on the cradle in spring 2005. Prior to that date Pale Male and his mate produced chicks each year from 1995 through 2004 – a total of 26 hatchlings, of which 19 survived to fledge – making Pale Male one of the most successful red-tailed hawks ever documented. Concerned by the correlation of lack of propagation and construction of the cradle, NYC Audubon enlisted four red-tailed hawk experts around the country to study the situation and present conclusions.

At the panel’s request, NYC Audubon arranged for two wildlife photographers, Jeff Kollbrunner and Donegal Browne, to take photos of the interior of the nest from the building’s roof. Those Jan. 4 pictures showed that stainless steel pigeon spikes extend above the nest material, posing a serious threat to successful embryo development during the 5-6 week egg incubation period. Birds must roll their eggs so that fluids within the egg are gently distributed and the tissues don’t stick together and form a dense mass. The erect spikes appear to impede this critical step and also to interfere with the hen’s ability to make proper contact of the eggs to her brood patch, keeping the eggs consistently warm. An observer reported that the hen’s brood patch appeared to be rubbed raw this past nesting season.

Braced with that evidence and the panel’s recommendation to remove the spikes beneath the nest bowl, NYC Audubon worked with various city authorities and the building’s coop board to obtain permission to remove the spikes from the nest cradle. NYC Audubon is especially grateful to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, who helped obtain needed permits, and to board member Sandy Fiebelkorn, who worked tirelessly for months to coordinate the whole process. The task was time-critical; early February marks the start of copulation.

There is no guarantee that this improvement of the birds’ habitat will mean chicks in mid-April, as the recent lack of reproductive success may have other causes. However, as one NYC Parks & Recreation official said, “I’m hawkish about what we’re doing.”

For those in a position to give NYC Audubon their thanks for all the work they did for Pale Male and Lola's benefit in a financial vein, the cost of workers and a swing stage alone in NYC is astronomical, here is a handy link-- http://www.nycaudubon.org/home/AnnualAppeal.shtml

3:32PM And while Pale Male snipped twigs with thoughts of Spring, what is predicted to be a foot of snow by Wednesday afternoon in Wisconsin, began to fall. The passerines taking their cue from the weather, gather near sunset to find food to keep themselves warm through the blizzarding night to come.

4:24PM Doorstep Dove, on a familiar perch, checks for the hawk before coming down to feed, while the snow swirls around her.

4:26:08PM A Crow calling loudly eats what looks a lot like Kentucky Fried Chicken that he's foraged from somewhere, while in the Maple closest to the house.

Doorstep and Friend hug the step for safety and peck madly at the seed that the squirrels have once again spilled from the feeder, in an attempt to beat the rapidly fading light and the need to roost before pure dark.

4:44PM Speaking of squirrels, One Eye digs through the snow already accumulated inside the suet feeder to get at the high energy fat.

4:46PM I opened the door and caused this lone Dark-eyed Junco to veer off. Instead of heading for the Spruce tree which would be the usual sanctury for flushed Juncos, he flew a few feet away and waited in the Pussy Willow until I went in, then joined Doorstep and Friend near the step.

4:47PM How many Juncos shelter amongst the snow laden boughs tonight?

5:11PM The world turns blue and fades to black. All the birds have found their roosts and hunker down for the night.

10:00:41PM Snow not only falls it swirls and dances. Not one print survives from the day and it's almost as if there never had been any creatures stocking up before the storm.

But by 12:30AM, even though the snow has not subsided, the tough Wisconsin bunnies have come out to feed leaving their tracks on the previously clean slate of snow, as has at least one of the Opossoms.

My last check, 1:36AM, there are fewer flakes falling now but they are all much larger than before. Only a handful of the dozens of tracks from an hour ago survive. They too soon will disappear, wafted away by the wind.

D.B.
(For recent posts, click on Palemaleirregulars at the top of the page.)

Pale Male's View of The Bench and Monday's Miscellany

PALE MALE'S VIEW OF THE HAWK BENCH--and The Conservatory Water, The Boat House, Bow Bridge, The Lake--well, see for yourself.


Photograph courtesy of the BBC

'New type of bird' found in Nepal
By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

A previously unknown sub-species of bird has been discovered in the southern grasslands of Nepal, scientists say.
The bird is a warbler with a very long tail and slender beak and has been named the Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7227696.stm

Driving down the road through Milton I saw a hawk landing in a tree in the Community Park. Changing destinations immediately I whisked into the nearest parking space, tromped through the snow drifts, got within 50 yards, and off she went through the branches and out of sight. Country hawks can be very trying.

Look carefully this is not Fluffy. I looked out and thought it was Fluffy. Then I noticed that Fluffy was acting completely out of character. Very un-Fluffy like. Fluffy was being downright speedy for no reason what so ever. Snuff, snuff, snuff, under the pole feeder, then a zing under the picnic table. I admit it was a possum zing, much slower than say, a Bunny zing, but one has to keep this sort of thing in the perspective of the species, right?

Then the possum checked under the feeder near the door, then three quick, snuff, snuff, snuffs, and here was the dead give away, this possum was very speedy at masticating her corn and sunflower seeds. Quite suspicious, I then noted that this possum, lets call her Speedy, is rather smaller than Fluffy.

Chances of seeing baby possums come Spring are getting better all the time.

Just in time for the upcoming snowstorm, how much snow is a big question depending on which weatherman one listens to, the estimates range from 1 inch to 14 inches, there has been a thaw. The lichen, benefiting from snow melt is plumping right up. Whatever will it do next?

Donegal Browne