A few evenings ago, I came upon some action in the Tompkins Square skate park. The area was full of skaters, but red-tailed hawk Charlie and one of his kids were also there hunting for dinner.
Charlie perched calmly on the top of the backstop.
But chaos erupted when the fledgling flew in.
The kid, screaming all the while, displaced Dad on the fence.
Both hawks moved so fast, I didn't do a very good job keeping up with them and keeping them within the frame. I was also dodging skaters!
After Charlie relocated to another fence, the fledgling came after him again. Below, you can see his face as he anticipates being knocked off his perch.
The fledgling chased Charlie all around the skate park, diving through skaters, and making a lot of ruckus. I wish I could have taken some video of the scene as it was so crazy.
So, why were they doing this? There are two things going on here: the fledgling sees Charlie as a source of food, and Charlie was also showing the fledgling where to get it. They both caught several rats along the north fence. When Charlie caught one, the fledgling would try to take it. But the fledgling also caught a few of their own. I lost track of how many rats they caught, but they must have slept well that night.
Below, the fledgling is so riled up, it clutches a small rat in its left talon, and manages to catch its right leg on the top of the fence as it takes off. As the hawk spent the next hour flying around and then playing in the grass, it seemed to be ok.
Wildly leaping off the fence to go after another rodent:
It must have been fun skating that evening with raptors swooping around at face level!
The fledgling diving off the fence again:
And again:
If you look close, you can seen another small rat in the fledgling's left talon:
After a couple of minutes, the hawk took its rat and flew right through the north gate and back into the skate area.
It was a dark evening, and I really wish the lighting had been better for photos, but we take what we can get. It was one of those situations where it was probably better to just stand back and enjoy the sight of two hawks maneuvering through all the skaters. A lot of people had fun that evening.
More to come...
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