Butterflies and friends

Late summer, after bird breeding season is done and migration has not yet begun, I like to fill the time looking for insects. Below are a few highlights seen in New York and Florida. 

Painted Lady butterfly: 

Black Dancer damselfly:

Common Buckeye:

Monarch butterfly:

Gulf Fritillary butterfly:

Red Saddlebags dragonfly:

Eastern Amberwing:

Skipper:

Bumblebee:

Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly:

Bird Grasshopper:

Female Blue Dasher:

Ceraunus Blue butterfly:

Phaon Crescent butterfly:

Roseate Skimmer:

Green Darner:

Mourning Cloak butterfly:

Duskywing:

Dainty Sulphur butterfly:

Sulphur butterfly:

Mid-August check-in with the Tompkins Square hawk family

I haven't seen much of the Tompkins Square Park red-tailed hawk fledglings recently, but I did catch a couple of them in the park last week. As it was late in the day and the light was fading, I was only able to get a few photos of one of them. 

As always, the park squirrels keep a close eye on the hawks.

The two fledglings that were in the park appeared to be doing well, and I have to trust the third sibling is also okay. At this time of year, as the young hawks leave the area and go off on their own, we just have to have confidence they can take care of themselves.

 

Below are some photos of hawk parents, Amelia and Charlie, from earlier in the summer.

 

This is Amelia being pestered by a Mockingbird as she minded her own business perched on the church cross at Avenue A & E 10th Street. 

This is Amelia flying up to one of the towers of St Brigid's church on Avenue B.

This is Charlie hanging out in the skateboard park one afternoon in July. He perched above the fence, watching critters run around in the bushes below.

After about an hour of waiting, he dove down to the bushes and flew back up to the top of the fence gripping a rat.

It may be hard to see in the photos, but the rat is in his right talon.

Getting ready to take off, Charlie grips the rat with both talons.

Charlie kindly flew right past me as he took his rat to another part of the park.

I had to use my phone to get this photo, but Charlie can be seen perched on the branch right above the short-lived Hell Ride ramp.

He stayed up there for over an hour as skateboarders performed their tricks. I was hoping he'd dive down in front of the eagle, but no such luck.

 

 

Governors Island Hawks - Part 2

Following my previous post on the Red-Tailed Hawk family on Governors Island, here are some photos showing a dinner sequence.

Dad had caught a rat and delivered it to a fledgling, who was perched on the roof of a building.

That's a big rat!

Dad flew overhead, checking to see how things were going.

 

Warning - the following images are a bit gory.

 

 

I watched as the fledgling hawk managed to skin the rat and turn it inside-out. I've seen young hawks do this before, but this time was pretty impressive as the rat was so large.

 

Normally, hawks tear away pieces of their prey and eat small bites. This hawk, however, ate the furry skin in one big chunk, then tried to swallow the whole rat, which didn't go so well. 

Unable to gulp down the entire rat, the hawk pulled it out of its mouth and dropped it in the gutter. Frustrated and crying, the fledgling didn't seem to know what to do. 

Mom (blue band 42A) flew in to assist.

 

She pulled the rat out of the gutter and I thought she would feed the kid, but she decided to eat it herself, starting with the tail.

You can see the fledgling's crop is bulging, so apparently the rat pelt was enough to tide it over as it did not protest when mom ate the rest of the meal.

Just as she finished, dad flew in to check for leftovers.

Unfortunately for him, there was nothing left.

Both the fledgling and dad watched as mom took off.

This is a closer image of her, showing her bands. 

I had to leave for the day, but I'm glad to have observed this interesting family gathering.