Aaaaaand we're back!

WTF?!? Ill tell you WTF...gmail and blogger got the ish hacked out of them. Someone or something broke into my gmail and emailed everyone in my address book potentially virus laden spam. As a result, blogger flagged my account as a spammer but within the span of a few hours viola, ish was back like nothing happened.
These are not the droids youre looking for...huzzzah?
So now that I've put the fear of the Chinese in you for ever trusting anything on the internets, here's some more pix from the wonderful world of birds. I give you:
Anatomy of a Peregrine Kill!

Pigeon flies into the hole.

Peregrine flies into hole.

Peregrine surprises pigeon and begins to kill it.
Pigeon cries bloody murder for about 90 seconds.

Peregrine feasts on bird for the next 20 minutes.

The culprit emerges, gore still on his talons!

Tip of Manhattan

Its no secret that I love traveling up to the tip of Manhattan to observe all the wonderful raptor action there. This go around was no different, with the resident peregrines of Broadway Bridge providing a thrilling spectacle of their amazing agility.
From their perch on the south tower, they steadily eyed the thousands of starlings that made their way to the Bridge to roost, snapping them up as they vectored in. Here's one unfortunate birdy!

The pigeons wisely stayed out of the fray!

Here's one of the many groups of starlings as they make their way to the North Tower.

I also spied a RTH hunting over Kingsbridge to the east.
Over at Inwood Hill, there was this juvy making his way through.

He/she allowed us to get quite close, without taking any notice. This leads me to believe that its one of this year's fledges from the Park. One of the adults that cut through the Park, also let be in peace. As we wound through the Park, there was very limited songbird activity. Over near a cluster of pines, I found copious amounts of owl slices...but no owls! A quick check of the ground did reveal these!

These tightly packed pellets were still wet...probably cast off from that nights feeding. They were comprised entirely of staring feathers, further demonstrating how the huge neighborhood flocks are providing much needed sustenance to a wide-range of Urban Raptors. Last but not least, the warm air mass provided great wind for hundreds of wandering gulls.

Uptown Birds

With my home situation in transition still, I decided to spend Sunday checking up on the bird situation Uptown. There is significant activity up at the St. John's nest, but still no confirmed chick sightings. I then swung up to CCNY to investigate the nest there. I found the female perched near the nest.





After looking down at the nest a few times, she swung off and then dive bombed an unseen crown on the west side of Shepard Hall. After circling around, she made a few vocalizations towards the nest...I assumed she was calling to her chicks.







None-the-less, I did not see a feeding or witness any movement in the nest despite being there for an hour. On another note, I did observer 1 towhee, 1 male and 1 female common yellow throat, 1 parula, 1 btblue warbler and these two beauties!



All but the house finches were firsts for St. Nicholas Park as far as I know.

I then headed further uptown, where I spotted the female kestrel atop her favorite perch at 152nd. She was hunting hard and I lost site of her as she dove after some sparrows.

I did see this pigeon guarding its nest from the raiding kestrel.

Working still further north, I meandered through Highbridge Park where there were over a dozen orioles calling melodiously in the trees. There were also numerous tree swallows, chimney swifts, btblue warblers, yr warblers and numerous parulas. This one flew in for a bath amongst a crop of HOSPs.





From there I went to the red-tailed nest, but not before spotting the male chasing off some crows above.

On the nest, I was just in time for a feeding!

Yay!

After feeding, this one flapped about for a few minutes, took a squirt, then it was nap time. I then moved on to Broadway Bridge. After a few minutes of waiting, the female flew into the scrape with food.


I did not witness a feeding due to the sun's position directly overhead, but the female flew in and out a few times, giving me great looks!






Last but not least I headed to Inwood Hill where I witnessed both parent around the nest and a feeding, but it was too leafed out to get a shot. I also witnessed many tanagers, orioles, yr warblers, btblue, btgreen and thrushes. All in all it was an exhaustive but exhilarating day. As I walked to the train, I witnessed this huge flock of geese migrating north at the edge of the advancing weather front!

Upon returning home I learned the bitter news of the 79th St. nest failure, thus dampening my mood. Hopefully there will be enough time for this pair and the 5th ave nest to try again. Last but not least, I got an email from a reader who says the Triboro Hawks are back, but on the opposite side of the bridge. He thinks there are three babies there. I will try to get over there to investigate.

In a final note, I witnessed this red-winged blackbird being hand fed over by turtle pond. The bird greedily ate the seeds offered, but in a ironic twist, quite painfully bit the hand that fed him! In the future, I recommend a bird feeder.