Octavia and the "kids", Prescribed Prairie Burns, and Vince of Fordham, his New Girl, and the Bad Choice Location

 

 photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/

 Octavia feeds the eyasses on Pale Male's Fifth Avenue nest.

From Chris Lyons, major watcher of the Fordham Hawks currently nesting on Webster Avenue-

Just saw one of those little white blobby things with a black spot in the center--from quite a good distance away, through binoculars, on the top floor of the building I work in, but I've been doing this a while now.  Popped up, looked around, settled back down again.  The female is sitting at the edge of the nest, looking down,  seemingly quite pleased with herself.  She is mercifully spared anticipation of the difficulties yet to come.

So normally joyous news, but now our preferential option--no hatch, and our new queen decides this nest site sucks, and goes somewhere better next time (like back to the campus) has failed to come about.  So we're stuck with option 2--search and rescue.  We don't even know the apartment number belonging to that window yet.  That's where the search part comes in.

Like I just told Bobby, I'm even concerned about the PRE-fledging stage, since you know that as they get close to taking off for the first time, they like to get athletic, and move around, from branch to branch, or ledge to ledge, and that's really not a good idea in this case.  I hope that rather narrow metal structure is going to be enough space for their pre-flight workouts. 

I've got a potential contact number for the building management--may be a false lead, but I'll pursue it.  They have got to know what's going on.   More as the story develops.

Fingers crossed Chris, keep us posted!

Sorry about the lag in posts, for the last seven days I've been doing prescribed burns of prairies and wetlands. It has been a trip.  

And nearly every burn had a Red-tailed Hawk nest on the periphery.  These areas were Red-tail hunting ground which included a copse of trees for a nest and hunting perches with a prairie spread out before it


The latest was a prescribed burn of 125 acres of wetland prairie. One doesn't want to burn down anything accidentally of course but this particular wetland had a four million dollar house in the middle of it.  

Photographs of rural Red-tailed Hawk nests and  aforementioned burns will have to wait as the photo transfer function of blogger is down.  Sigh.

And lest I forget, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak pair who stopped in for a bite at the feeder. 
 

From Robin of Illinois by way of Jackie of Tulsa--

 A BEAVER CAM!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/ellis-bird-farm-far-beaver-lodge

It's inside the lodge, and a beaver has been on and off the screen.

MUCH MORE TO COME, PARTICULARLY WHEN THE PHOTO FUNCTION IS BACK UP!

Donegal Browne

FLASH!! IT LOOKS LIKE AT LEAST TWO EYASSES, FOR PALE MALE AND OCTAVIA!

 Photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/
Word just in from longtime blog contributor and hawkwatcher Stella Hamilton (Who took a week of vacation so she'd be onsite for a hatch.) has another report for today!

7:47PM  Pale Male arrives on the the Fifth Avenue nest without prey.  He and Octavia look at each other. Pale Male and Octavia look into  the nest bowl. 

 Octavia pulls out a portion of squirrel from the right side of the nest and eats for about three minutes. 

Octavia then starts ripping off small bits and feeding into the right side of the bowl for several minutes.  She then picks up the squirrel carcass and moves to the left side of the bowl and feeds there as well.   

Therefore an educated guess, brings us to the hypothesis  that  there are two eyasses so far this season for the Monarch of Central Park and his Consort.

Scroll down for the first flash of the day if you've not seen it yet!

Donegal Browne

FLASH!!!! FEEDING AT FIFTH AVENUE!!!! PALE MALE DOES IT AGAIN!!!

Long time hawkwatcher Stella Hamilton was out with her trusty scope, late Saturday, and watched as Pale Male hunted at the playground. 

 Stella saw him nab a good sized rat.  He ate half (with large prey he will often eat some making it easier to carry up to the nest) and at 7:56PM Pale Male took the rest up to Octavia.  Instead of leaving with it, as is her usual habit to eat, Octavia stayed on the nest  to eat. 

Stella took it as a sign that the feeding of eyeasses might well be coming up.

AND TODAY, AT 3:00PM PALE MALE TOOK WHAT WAS LIKELY ANOTHER RAT UP TO THE NEST.   OCTAVIA BEGAN TO PULL IT INTO SMALL PIECES.  SHE THEN DIPPED HER HEAD INTO THE NEST BOWL WITH CLASSIC FEEDING MOTIONS!!!

HAPPY HAWKING... AND BRING OUT THE CIGARS!

Donegal Browne