Spirit Hawk

From internet history this hawk is at least 10 years old. Native people in this area considered it a Spirit Animal. The logic being that since it stood out so much and was so easy to track and kill, that it represented the essence of the animal, almost like an avatar and was not to be hunted or ever fucked with. For me, I had tried to see this bird for the past 5 years (since moving to NJ). Today I found it on a remote foot path on the Rutgers Campus, just after it caught a robin. It was too busy wolfing it down to notice my approach. As soon as it was done, it looked directly at me and flew up and away!

NYC Nesting Raptors

Water St. Peregrines Grant's Tomb Hawks Riverside Church Peregrines St. John Hawks Good Luck to all the Nesters!

Thelonius Hawk

Winter is hawk rescue season in NYC as many of the first year birds get into trouble. Whether its starvation, parasites or secondary poisoning, hawk rehabbers are admitting about 1 hawk a day from around the 5 boros. This guy was trapped in Thelonius Monk Circle on West End and 63rd St. It has an injury to its right wing and could barely fly--possibly from chasing prey--and rat bites on its feet. The Park there is heavily infested with rats and many hawks die due to secondary poisoning--in other words injesting a poisoned rat. Rather than controlling rats by restricting their food sources or using other methods such as live traps and CO2, the City has gone all in with poison, thus condemning many birds of prey to agonizing deaths. If you see a sick or injured hawk, please contact the Audubon Society who will dispatch a wildlife rescue voluteer. The animal was brought to Animal Medical Center on 62nd and York for evaluation and will be rehabbed by WINORR. All of these organizations are non-profit so please feel free to donate to them...it will go to a great cause! Thanks to Fabian the doorman for the pix!

Harlem Hawk Walk/Harlem Bird Count

For the past few years I've merged my annual hawk walk with the Xmas Bird Count. It's hard to believe that I've spent a good part of the last 10 years documenting the birds Uptown and meeting all the people who have an interest in such things. Here's this years tally and pix to go along. Red-tailed Hawks: 5 Peregrine Falcons: 2 American Kestrel: 2 We also had, 5 American crows, 5 Downy WP, 1 Red-bellied WP, 1 WB Nuthatch, 6 Mallards, 35 Robins, 2 House Finch, 15 Blue Jay, 2 Mockingbirds, 2 Song Sparrow, 25 WT Sparrows, 25 Junco, 11 Northern Cardinals, 6 Ring-billed Gulls, 15 Mourning Doves, 145 Pigeons, 140 HOSP, 70 Starling

Wild Hawk Nest

They have at least one chick, about 3 weeks old up there. Mom is still super protective!

Ravenswood Red-tailed Rescue

This was the most challenging rescue I've ever attempted. As a result, its going to be a bit tough to describe all the elements that went into this but I'll give it a shot. First off, this call came in from the Ravenswood Powerplant in Queens. Long a fixture of the skyline, this place is tucked up against the East River in the shadow of the 59th Street bridge (or whatever they are calling it these days) and not so easy to get to. I've been past it many times but never inside and because of security reasons I will only post one exterior shot and then closeups from inside the plant. After meeting the a manager and a few environmental control officers, we drove to the gas turbine exhaust room where the hawk had ended up after chasing a pigeon down the stack. Oh but first we had to climb a ladder, then shimmy over to a small opening and climb into a dark room with limited flooring. This is a shot of the room with the lights on, but we had them off during the rescue to try to remove stress from the bird. If you look at this pic you'll notice a few things. For one there are sloping sheet metal sides which the bird kept trying to claw up. Second its soaking wet. Third, there's a gap of about 8 inches running around the perimeter of the room. Also there's a bunch of pigeon feathers from its last meal. As we scale up and approach the bird, it was extremely agitated. Instead of trying to chase the bird around the small enclosure, I just waited for it to flop in front of me and threw a towel over it. This worked but the sly bird squirmed between the planks and down into the enclosure beneath us. Damn! After composing myself, we looked for a way into that area but there was none, so I squeezed in between the same gap and got down to where the now furious bird was. Again I got the towel and threw it at the bird, which was now on its back. It tried to foot the towel but missed and instead grabbed its own wing. I then quickly corralled the bird but it wouldnt release its own body. Not wanting to risk further injury I climbed back up and put the hawk in the box we had. Whew...now to get down without injuring ourselves or the bird. We took our time and all 4 of us worked together to safely get back outside. The hawk was throwing itself all around the box and I wanted to release it because its nesting season and likely on eggs. The bird had also probably been in there overnight and was very hungry. Before I could do that though I needed to inspect the bird because its unethical to release a bird that is not 100% healthy. After taking it to a maintenance room and gathering it, I noticed a number of problems. First and foremost, it had broken its talon trying to scurry up the turbine room wall. Also a few of its feathers were broken. It had also footed its own wing and could be injured from that. I made the call to Bobby Horvath of WINNOR who has rehabbed many birds of prey in the past. We decided to get the bird to him and then they would take it to a vet immediately afterward for a checkup. If it all turns out ok, we'll release this bird in a day or two so he can get back to his nest and mate. Definitely a situation that could have resulted in injury to people or birds but due to experience and calm decision-making, this worked out as well as it could have. Thanks to the NY Audubon, the good people of Ravenswood and the Horvaths. Im gonna go collapse now.

Trapped in a Basement

It's the same old story: Hawk chases starling. Starling goes into air vent. Hawk goes into air vent. Hawk tumbles down air vent into basement. Super opens door and hawk is in basement. What you wind up with is a very PO'ed adult red-tailed hawk in a confined basement that it has zero chance of escaping from. So Super calls 311. 311 puts them in touch with Animal Control. Animal Control puts them in touch with Audubon Society. Audubon Society sends out an email asking for volunteers to try to assist with the bird. Since its not on a Park, the Rangers or Park Police cant officially respond. Animal Control is not equipped to handle raptor rescues because the require a good deal of training and experience. Each rescue is different and they are all a unique combination of planning and improvisation. For example, I did this rescue in the dark to keep the bird from seeing my hands reach for it. I never tried this technique before but it worked perfectly. This is what that looked like. So after inspection I realize the bird is completely unharmed and had no signs of frounce or other parasites. Given its hungry and ferocious state, I decided it was best to go up to the roof and release this healthy bird. Before we released it, I scanned the area for how it could have ended up down in the basement. On the top of the roof, I found the answer. From the previous pic you can see he was waiting to foot me as I reached into the box. So instead, I gently turned the box over to slide him out. He got the message and bolted from the roof! As soon as he got near MSG, a peregrine falcon attacked! The bird easily defended itself and then carried on toward the South East. Special shout out to Tim the Super...without him the hawk would have met his fate with the other starlings in the basement.

Double Rescue

Had a bit of a crazy day with raptors in need of rescue. First off was report of a bird collision on Lexington Ave. and 58th St. Turns out a juvy redtailed hawk had collided with the glass exterior of the Bloomberg Building and was sitting dazed on a 6th floor terrace. I arrived just to see the bird compose itself and fly off towards 59th st. I was able to track the bird and gained entry to the exposed staircase it had perched, 1 block away. Carefully approaching from the rear, my plan was grab both legs simultaneosly. Amazingly the hawk gave up without a fight. It was clearly very emaciated and possibly suffering from frounce. I bundled her up in a box and jumped in a cab towards AMC and let the Horvaths know they had a new charge. Later that day word of a young kestrel on Madison and 95th st came in. I hoofed it over there and sure enough a not-quite-flighted kestrel was in a playground on 95th st. A concerned woman had called around and eventually gotten the Audubon Society, who contacted me. During the time of waiting, she said a strange man tried to take the bird, but they warded him off. She also said that she had spoke to the Wild Bird Fund who told her to just leave it be and that it would be ok. While I can understand why they may have said this to someone totally unfamiliar with handling birds, it is actually false. Due to the presence of 1)strange people 2)feral cats 3)off-leash dogs and 4)rats, unflighted birds really dont have much of a chance if left on the ground in an urban environment. I explained this to the concerned group and set about catching the little guy. Basically I laid on my stomach and slowly, with an outstreched hand, caught the kestrels legs between my fingers. He was not at all happy about it and let out his sharp cry. Upon hearing that, some of the park goes reported hearing that same call throughout the day nearby. I put the kestrel in a box and set out to find the scrape. I had guessed that two previous kestrels from this area were also part of the same nest, but I was unable to find any definitive markings of a nest. The building right across from the park that was undergoing renovations seemed the most likely candidate, but I will have to return to the site to be sure...who knows there may be another one in there! Till then both are receiving the best care possible...hopefully they will be releasable in a few weeks.

Redtailed Hawk on Harlem Church

Cold and windy as it may be, the hawks are using the inclement weather to full advantage. Here a large adult female lays in wait above Lenox Ave. Google Earth puts it at 2/5 of a mile.

Hawk in the Loch

Some pix from a young redtailed hawk bathing in the Loch.


It rolled on its side...

then leapt from the water.

Full Bloom

It finally feels as if the cold, grey shroud of winter has lifted. Although some winter birds still remain, the first wave of spring migrants is in full swing. The hawks and peregrines are all well into brooding, and even the kestrels have begun mating and will soon brood too. This is a sample of some of the action!
Norman's reign of terror over Morningside continues!


He seems fond of starlings!



Finally caught my resident kestrels copulating on top of Wadleigh!

While downtown on Water St., I discovered another nesting kestrel pair while checking on the 55 Water peregrines. The male was nest raiding above the lunch time crowd!




And now a sampling of those migrants.
Palm Warbler

Phoebe

Wood thrush

White throated sparrow

Mocker

Titmouse

Bluejays chasing each other through the trees.

Brown Creeper

Golden Crowned Kinglet

Chipping sparrow

Doves, chippers and juncos

Pigeon carcass