Thursday, November 6, 2014

Tompkins Square hawk update

Now that the sun sets in late afternoon, I'm unable to get to Tompkins Square to play with the hawks before nightfall.  My time with them is now restricted to weekends and days off work.  What ever did I do with myself before I met these birds?  Ah, that's right!

Anyway, I did manage to catch some hawk action in the park this last weekend.  On Friday, a fellow hawk-watcher spotted a juvenile Cooper's hawk sitting in a tree near the Avenue A playground.  Just as we were getting a good look at it, one of the red-tails (not sure if it was Christo or Dora) swooped in and chased the young hawk off its perch.  Both hawks headed to the Avenue B side of the park, so we followed them over there only to find an adult Cooper's sitting calmly near the 8th Street entrance.

Cooper's hawk in Tompkins Square

After a while, both Christo and Dora flew around and chased the adult Cooper's away. 

On Sunday, there was an unexpected visitor flying over St Brigid's on Avenue B & St Marks...a red-shouldered hawk.

Red-shouldered hawk

The winds that day were really strong, so the hawks did a lot of soaring over the park.  Here's Christo doing a low fly-by...

Christo

...sizing up some dinner...

Eye on the prize

...and calling for Dora.

Christo calling

Dora came down into the park briefly before taking off again.

Dora

And the big surprise of the day was...a turkey vulture!

Turkey vulture over Tompkins Square

In other hawk-related news, Roger_Paw has an interesting post this week on the [non] use of rat poison in Washington Square.  I'm wondering if the same snap traps will be used in Tompkins Square as Christo and Dora are definitely living here now and could have plans to re-use their nest on the Christodora building.

Previously.


1 comment:

  1. East village; same as it's always been: (Christo and Dora to Coopers...) "Get the fuk outa my neighborhood!"
    Hey guys, there's plenty of rats to go around. Lighten up!

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