Inwood Hill Park

When I arrived late that day, I saw the mother leave the nest and hunt over Marble Hill.
The light wasnt the best, but this is a shot of the nest with dad in the upper right.

This egret cruised by a few times...

but the real star of the show was this industrious harbor seal!

Lots of fun to watch!!!

A really wonderful day up at Inwood. On the way out I was reminded though,

one man's trash, is another man's home!

Broadway Bridge '09

Here are some shots from the tip of Manhattan from the past weekend. The peregrine pair continues to overwinter at Broadway Bridge. The pair will spend much of the time defending their territory and hunting.

The sunside of the bridge is their well worn territory.
Here's the female coughing up a pellet,


and the male preening.


As in the past two years, juvenile Cooper's hawks maintain a prominent role in the available hunting territory. I watched this one break at a flock of pigeons!


The interesting thing was noticing how the antenna visibly rocked as it took off.
Also seen were this cute black squirrel,

and this rare species, kayakus insaneus.

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.

Inwood Hill

Following up on reports that the Inwood Hill redtails have begun to fledge, myself and Adam headed over there after visiting Broadway Bridge to see if we could find any signs. As we came up to the Park, there was tons of activity both human and avian. Approaching Smuggler's Cove, I scanned for any waterbirds and was shocked to see one of the eyass huddled beneath the landing dock.

It was standing on a small log, half submerged! Needless to say, we were very concerned, so we located one of the rangers who assured us that the young bird could fly fairly well and would be ok. In addition, we learned that there was also a second fledge somewhere else in the Park. We decided to stay with this guy even though a huge thunderstorm had begun to move through.

There were all kinds of birds on the dock harassing the hawk. It was really a democracy of anger...with grackles, robins and even barn swallows joining in the harassment!

Here he gets buzzed by one of the swallows!

Eventually, the hawk lit off and landed in a tree overlooking the meadow.


Where it bounded around from tree to tree as even more bird came to mob. At one point a mocker, catbird, grackle and robin were all taking turns!



We then ran for cover as the lightning became more intense. After about 20 minutes, someone came to the ranger station saying that one of the young had landed in the street. We emerged to find it in a tree over the water. Again, there was a mob of about 20 birds harassing the poor guy.
There was this first year adult male oriole...

there was this adult male orchard oriole...

then there was all three!

Here's a composite of the orchard oriole taking a few swipes!

Later on, I did locate the oriole nest.

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.