Morningside Redtailed Hawks

Found a juvy and adult RTH hunting the northern parts of Morningside Park. Here's some of the action as they hunted squirrels.

Almost Fledging (Part 2)

The Boat-basin Hawks are doing a great job keeping their little ones fed. The rapid growth has led to some rudimentary branching by the oldest chick. Here they are flapping, hopping, sleeping and generally being awesome little dudes.





The whole family.

Under the watchful eye of the parent. She was carefully eyeing a dog.

Say it loud..."I Love Hawks!!!"

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.

Fall Birds Part 2

As the fall migrants begin to ebb, their colder winter brethren are beginning to settle in. In addition to birds such as sparrows, titmice and chickadees, numerous species of raptors will begin to take up their winter residences here in the City's Parks. Here's a sample of these visitors...
A large juvy RTH in the North Woods,

moving rapidly throughout the trees.

The last of the warblers fattening up include Palms,

Yellow rumped,

Tennessee,


and Kinglets.

Some of the cold weather birds include this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker,

titmice,

and jays caching acorns!

Feasting on this crop of birds are numerous raptors including Cooper's Hawks. This one was over CPN,

while this one was over 150th, hunting starlings.

Also on 150th, was the resident male kestrel...






Last but not least, are the Monarch Butterflies.

Multi-faceted

Here are a few different angles of a familiar subject...with some video and bonus pix thrown in!





Off to join his mate.

At 125th St., a female kestrel!





At one point, she lit from her perch. I struggled to follow, but saw that she fell in directly behind a starling! You can hear the starling squeal as she out turns the kestrel! If you watch the video frame by frame, you can see the kestrel pursue for a brief few seconds.

She gave up the chase and then raided a starling nest and consumed the chick on the antenna.
Mourning doves,

These crows were raiding a squirrel drey.


Black backed gull,

Peregrine,

and a thrifty squirrel, packing a lunch!