Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Nest Number 8!

Man, this has been the year for new Red-tailed Hawk nests. There's really a triple irony behind this one. First irony: this is a first year nest, that has popped up on a structure that I have fotographed hawks on numerous time in the past. Additionally this structure and nest would have been visible from an apartment that I had on 145th St...from my living room couch no less. Second irony: this is yet another nest that was first discovered by a dog walker. Ironic because many times the agenda of dog walkers has conflicted with bird watchers. The third and final irony: I had been at this site two weeks prior, fotographed a hawk right near the nest, but failed to recognize it. Sometimes it takes the observations of others to tell us what is directly under our noses.
*Just found out that this the person who reported this nest is not a dog walker. So we holding then at 2 ironies, down from 3. Im sure there will be more irony to report as time goes on.
I found the nest on the east side, overlooking Hamilton Heights.

The bird made some adjustments to the new nest and then sat up tall. It was eyeing something in the distance. After some time, it rocketed out of the nest and dove on some starlings in the park.


It leveled out empty taloned and then landed in the park.



And flew back to the nest on what was a perfect example of dynamic soaring.

More shots of the nest. Not sure what the gargoyle is, but looks like a knave.


Thanks to Bruce for passing on another nest tip--again, from a dog walker.

2 comments:

Ben C. said...

James,

Do you have the photos of the shots you took when you didn't notice a nest in the area? Did the image include a smaller version of the nest?

Thanks both to you and Bruce for keeping tabs on the RTs over the past few years.

Ben

yojimbot said...

I do have them, but my nest is just outside of the area. This is the one example I can think of where having a long lens worked against me!