The birds of fortune were with me today! Although the light wasnt great, the birds were there and I got to witness some great behaviors. Starting at the Cathedral, I caught Isolde going on a nest break.
Next at Broadway Bridge the Peregrines were perched together near the scrape.
I watched them hunt and defend their turf from all comers. Eventually one disappeared and I found it on the lights of Columbia Field.
Looking at the pic I see this bird is unbanded. This shot from
2010 shows both adults were banded birds which leads to the inevitable conclusion that this is a new unbanded female.
At Inwood Hill Park, we located the new Hawk nest and witnessed a nest exchange.
The nest doesnt look super sturdy, but lets hope for the best.
Finally back on my roof I noticed a small falcon a few blocks away. As I watched, a male kestrel showed up. I thought they might be a pair...nope. Turns out the kestrel was trying to shoe the merlin off. Running a few blocks the birds remained on their perch.
The kestrel did puff himself up a few times, but never directly threatened the merlin. After a while it tore down the block and spun down on some starlings. It seems to be in the area still so hopefully I can relocate it.
In addition there were about 6 common ravens flying over 125th Street, northward at noon.
He was so well hidden that I didnt report it to all but the Central Park Birds Flickr gallery. When I returned to check for it today, I found this freshly decapitated field mouse.
After methodically scanning each and every pine cone I could not relocate it there so I widened my search. Looking over at the corner of the Met, I got a sickening feeling.
Not two feet from the highly reflective plate glass window was the still soft body of the Saw-whet Owl. In the glass I could see the outline of where it had collided.
As I picked it up I noticed the eyes were still wide open and there was blood coming from around its beak. All classic collision signs. It even still seemed to be in mid-wing beat.
I called Ranger Rob and turned the bird over to Ranger Eric who will then forward the bird on to the NYSDEC for further analysis. It would be great if the NYSDEC can turn the heat up on the Met to reach out to the Audubon Society and myself to do a full audit of their glass and devise a simple, low cost solution to the problem such as decals, grids or screens. There's no reason the Met cant both preserve the beauty within and outside of their walls.
As a final note, there was plenty more evidence that lots of birds are hitting that window. There are a few dead birds in the grate directly underneath the window and lots of outlines of collisions on the window itself.
