Fall Foliage 2026 - Part 2

Following my previous post on Fall Foliage, we continue with more colorful highlights from the last week or so.

This is looking at the High Line from Washington Street in the Meatpacking District. 

These scenes are from Evergreens Cemetery in Brooklyn. Cemeteries are great places to see fall foliage as they tend to have a nice variety of trees.

This is a Sugar Maple and this photo just doesn't convey the intensity of the orange color.

This is All Faiths Cemetery in Queens.

Beth-El Cemetery in Queens:

Tompkins Square Park:

The Krishna Tree looking lovely in yellow:

Finally, the scene around the Temperance Fountain:

But wait, there's more! As October turned into November, more trees joined the autumn party, so the fall foliage series will continue next week.

 

See previous fall foliage posts here. 

Fall Foliage 2026 - Part 1

It's my favorite time of year when the trees put on their spectacular color show. This season, leaves in the city appeared to start changing color in late October, and they're at their peak now.

Below are some scenes from October, the first few being from Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. 

Here are a few images from Union Field Cemetery in Queens.

More to come...

See fall foliage from past years here.

Interesting hawk activity in Tompkins Square

An interesting hawk drama played out Tuesday evening in Tompkins Square Park.

It began when I saw one red-tailed hawk fly into a tree above my head. A half second later, Amelia flew by clutching a pigeon. She landed in a tree about 50 feet away from the first hawk. 

Amelia took the pigeon to another tree where she quickly ate it, then quietly perched on a branch.

 

I went back to the first hawk, assuming it would be her mate, Charlie, but it turned out to be a juvenile.

 

As Amelia seemed to be cool with this young hawk close by, I wondered if it could be one of her offspring from this last season.

I really have no way of confirming the identity of any of the fledglings, and it's a bit late in the year for any of them to still be hanging around, so I was intrigued.

This young hawk seemed pretty comfortable in this environment, and spent about a half hour watching squirrels and pigeons on the ground.

Eventually, the young hawk dove after some pigeons, but missed and ended up in a tree about 100 feet further away.

From its new perch, the young hawk studied the prey situation. The sun had just set, and the rats were emerging from their burrows.

In a flash, the young hawk dove down and caught a small rat in the garden area near the tree where I first saw it perched.

All seemed well until I heard the deep hoarse red-tailed hawk scream of Amelia. She did not sound happy, and flew into the branches directly above the young hawk. The juvenile looked straight up at her and remained absolutely frozen for 15-20 minutes. Amelia let out 4-5 more screams and the juvenile did not take its eyes off her. I've never seen a standoff go on for so long.

It looked to me like Amelia was okay having this youngster around until it caught food in her territory. The young hawk dared not move, or she would likely chase it. Then again, Amelia did not want to come any lower - she does not come to the ground like Charlie (and Christo before him) will do. I saw her catch a rat on the ground in the park exactly once, and that was soon after her arrival in 2018. She does the majority of her hunting by grabbing pigeons off rooftops.

 

Anyway, Amelia tried her best to scold the juvenile and intimidate it into leaving, but it held its ground and didn't move. Eventually, Amelia flew to a tree about 100 feet away and screamed at it from there. At some point, the young hawk felt safe enough to start eating. It stayed on the ground as I think if it took its food to a tree, Amelia would have come after it. 

 

I expected Charlie to show up, but I never saw him, so I guess he was busy. As it became dark, the young hawk took off to the other side of the park, presumably to roost for the night.

 

 

Amelia, Charlie, and a surprise Bald Eagle

I was happy to catch Tompkins Square Red-Tailed Hawks, Charlie and Amelia, perched together on the church cross at Avenue A & 10th Street this last Sunday evening.

Charlie is on the left while Amelia is on the right. 

Charlie moves to the top spot.

This has always been a favorite hawk perch and its comforting for me to see them there just hanging out and appearing to enjoy each other's company at the end of the day.

Eventually, Charlie took off to chase some pigeons, and ended up perched on a rooftop pipe a block down the street.

Amelia remained on the church and I stayed with her until the sun disappeared, at which time she took off to go roost somewhere north of the park.

Meanwhile, there are raptors to be seen in other parts of the city. This is an adult Red-Tailed Hawk in Queens, her crop full of dinner.

This was an exciting surprise. I was in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn on Saturday and saw a shadow move across the landscape. I looked up to see this Bald Eagle flying in over Sylvan Water.

The eagle scanned the ground as it sailed in, perhaps looking for prey.

After the dramatic entrance, the eagle flew up into a tree where it perched for about an hour.

This eagle has an interesting dark-tipped tail, which is helpful for identification. I hope it sticks around and makes more appearances.