Urban Jungle

On location with Nat Geo filming some Harlem Hawks. CCNY The Male, banded by the Horvaths in 2010. Wishing them success on their great effort to capture wildlife surviving in the City!

Sunday Gale

A stiff breeze cleared out the last of the rain. By early morning, there was nothing but a clear, piercing clarity. I knew that hawks would use the favorable wind to make up for the hunting they missed over the last few days. Starting at the Cathedral, I saw first the female, then the male fly into the nest.







The female stayed on the nest for some time while the male circled the Cathedral, flushing pigeons and starlings. I decided to swing over to CCNY while the morning light was still favorable. I saw first one,

then another hawk fly out of the nest!







After a while, neither hawk returned. I caught glimpses of them over the Park, but they didnt return. From there I went to meet Bruce and Chris Lyons to see if we could discover if any redtailed hawks are nesting in Riverside Park near 165th St. To get there, I cut through Trinity Cemetery, where I discovered a nesting pair of crows. They really didnt like me looking, and crowed vigourously at me the whole time.


Over at Trinity Cemetery, no sign of a nest, but I saw 1 Cooper's and 1 jvy RTH.



In Riverside, I spotted two adult RTH's hawking over the trees and occasionally making descents. We were not able to discover the location, but the presence of 2 adults and a juvy do signal that further searches may be warranted.
One of the adults...

and this very lightly colored juvy.



Later, this ring billed

and this female kestrel hunting.

And the Cathedral pair, joining up to ward off a juvy.

I also saw two turkey vultures, and Chris had a juvy bald eagle on the River in the am.

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.