Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Killing time with Christo

While Dora continues to brood on the nest, mostly out of sight from the street, I caught up with Christo this last weekend in Tompkins Square.

I'd just been complaining out loud that I hadn't seen him up close in a while, so of course that's when he flew across the Avenue A playground with a pigeon.

Christo with a pigeon

After letting all the kids get a good look at his catch, he took it over to the chess tables where a small crowd gathered to watch.

Christo with a pigeon

But after several minutes of feather-plucking, he decided to take off.  He flew to the north end of the park near 10th Street, but I lost him and never saw if he ate the pigeon himself or shared it with Dora.

Christo with a pigeon

Monday night, I found him hunting rats behind the park offices.

Christo

Birds and squirrels swarmed all over the area, but he seemed bent on getting the rats that ran around in the bushes under the birdbaths.  I wanted to stay and watch him, but I got kicked out when the park employees locked the gate.

Lucky for me, Christo flew back out to the front of the offices and perched on the flagpole.

Christo on his flagpole

I don't know why he gave up on hunting in the back area, as he had a lot of dining options back there.  He spent the next hour or so diving from the flagpole into the grassy area just to the west, failing to catch anything, then back up to the flagpole. 

Christo

Watching him try to catch dinner over and over made me hungry, so I had to leave.  I hope he found what he was looking for...

Christo

See more photos on my Flickr page.

Previously.

2 comments:

  1. Christo is looking so patriotic in that flag photo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What great pics! I think he should get his picture on a stamp. Such a handsome bird!

    ReplyDelete