Friday hawk pics and a couple of updates on the Tompkins Square fledglings

A quick update on our Tompkins Square Red-Tailed Hawk fledglings: the one taken to Wild Bird Fund on Monday is still there. It showed signs of head trauma and a wing injury (no broken bones), consistent with a collision of some kind. Seeing how the young hawks chase after squirrels and pigeons, it's not unexpected that this type of injury could happen. I'm hoping it can be released soon. I had conflicting reports on whether it's male or female.

The DEC returned results of the necropsy done on the fledgling who died in late July, but we still don't have any answers as to what exactly happened to the hawk. There wasn't enough tissue to do a toxicology test to see if there was any rodenticide present, but they did find bits of rodent fur and claws internally. They were unable to determine whether the hawk was male or female. Judging by the way the hawk's body was positioned on the fire escape, I still believe it was severely weakened by something (illness/poison) while it roosted at night and died as a result. 

The third fledgling is still alive and well and has been seen around the park this week. 

Mid-August is normally the time we see the hawk fledglings take off on their own, so any sighting makes me happy.

This fledgling still has the yellowish color on its chest. By the time the young hawks take off on their own, that color is usually gone. 

I found this fledgling zipping around the skateboarding area of the park.

Here's a nice view of the wings and tail.

The strip of bushes along the park fence on E 10th Street has been a popular source for rodents. On this day, the fledgling caught a small rat in that area.

I love to watch the hawks as they take off, showing the strength it takes from their legs and wings to get airborne.

This is dad Charlie taking off from a fence. He's looking a bit shaggy as he molts - I'll do a separate post dedicated to his and Amelia's summer molts.

More to come...

Hawk action in the Tompkins skate park

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... 

Tompkins Square hawk fledgling taken to Wild Bird Fund

One of the Tompkins Square Park red-tailed hawk fledglings had to be rescued this evening after showing signs of injury.

I found the fledgling on the east side of the park playing in the grass. Things seemed normal until it tried to fly up into a tree (to avoid an unleashed dog that was let into the fenced-in area) and it struggled to make it to a low branch. From there, it flew back to the ground and ran around in the bushes. I thought it could be chasing after a rat, so I circled around to the other side of the bushes to get a better look. That's when I saw the hawk fly up to a fence where I could see it obviously had something wrong with it.

The hawk could barely make it up to the fence and had to use its beak to pull itself up. When it perched, it let its left wing hang out. This is not normal. 

A crowd of onlookers quickly formed and some people were getting way too close. I contacted Rob Mastrianni of the NYC Urban Park Rangers, who immediately said he was on his way to come rescue the hawk.

 

In the mean time, the situation was getting stressful as people kept crowding the hawk. The fledgling took refuge atop one of the brick pillars at the entrance to the park, and one of the NYPD officers who patrol the park assisted by putting barriers around the hawk, keeping anyone from getting too close.

Just before help arrived, the hawk flew across the street to the courtyard of Trinity Lutheran church. If this seems familiar, this is where red-tailed hawk Dora took refuge when she was injured in 2018.

Here is video of the hawk being netted and Rob doing a preliminary examination:

Here is video of a closer inspection of the hawk:

 

Rob took the hawk to the Wild Bird Fund on the Upper West Side for veterinary treatment.  Thanks to Rob and the other hawk watchers who responded quickly to help out. Thanks also to the NYPD officer who kept things calm. 

 

It was almost a year ago when Rob and the Urban Park Rangers rescued a fledgling who was acting out of sorts in the skateboard area of the park. And Rob has come to the rescue several times when our hawks have been in distress. 

As soon as I know anything about the condition of the hawk, I'll post here. 

Tompkins Square hawk fledglings feeding themselves

Catching up with the Tompkins Square Park red-tailed hawk fledglings this week, I found them snacking on pigeons and rats that they caught themselves.

I came upon this one just after it caught a rat within the park and dropped it onto one of the pathways. When I arrived, the hawk was looking down at the rat and seemed to be considering how to retrieve it.

To help out, I picked up the rat and tossed it into a fenced-in area while the hawk watched, so it knew where its meal went. After a few minutes, the hawk came down, picked up the rat, and flew it to a tree to eat.

Down the hatch!

This particular fledgling still has a yellowish chest and looks pretty in the late afternoon sun.

A few blocks south of the park, I followed the loud squawks of a blue jay, which led me to the other fledgling hanging out in a basketball court.

A closer look revealed it was eating a pigeon.

An unflattering shot of the hawk gulping down a leg:

Meal over, the hawk flew up to the top of a fence where it perched and rested until sunset.

Although the fledglings are capable of catching their own prey, dad Charlie is still on hand to provide for them when they need it. Below, he calls out to his kids to announce he has a pigeon for them.

When no one answered, Charlie took the pigeon to another tree and ate it himself.

Later, Charlie flew around with a pigeon leg in case any of the fledglings were interested.

When there is food left over, but no one is hungry at that particular moment, Charlie will stash the food in the trees and either return to it later himself, or the fledglings will find and eat it. Either way, nothing goes to waste.

More to come...