The Christo-Nora relationship is still a bit of a mystery

I had word this week that Dora's wing injury has improved and all the swelling has gone down, but she is still unable to fly.  It seems her injury may have been worse than it appeared and she has a long way to go.  She's getting some exercise, so I hope that helps increase her strength.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Christo and Nora is still a bit odd.  They demonstrated on Christmas Day that they are defending the park together, but that seems to be the only cooperation happening at this time.  Christo obviously tolerates Nora being in his territory and she is definitely a dominant force.  Christo has been seen nest-building by himself, but Nora has yet to be seen working on any projects with him.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Christo appeared atop the Christodora Building.



He came down into the park and perched in the Krishna tree where he was promptly harassed by blue jays.



From there, he took off towards the west side of the park and caught a rat at the Avenue A and St Mark's entrance. 



I missed the shot as a crazy person chose that exact moment to harass me. Walking around with a camera often makes me a target for harassment, but the majority of the people in the park are friendly.

As soon as Christo caught the rat, I saw Nora swoop into the park out of the corner of my eye.  She perched high in a big tree near the chess tables as Christo took his rat to the south side of the park and tried to quickly gulp it down.



Within seconds, Nora dove right towards him.



She startled Christo as she streaked by beneath him.  She reminded me of a shark knocking a boat.



She perched behind Christo and stared at his back as he ate.  About ten seconds later, she came at him, forcing him off the branch.



The rat disappeared, and I presume it fell to the ground.  Nora pecked around at the branch for a few seconds while Christo perched a distance away and watched her as he was again harassed by blue jays.  Finding no food, she took off.



Having lost his lunch, Christo made another run at catching a rat in the same spot next to the St Mark's entrance to the park.  He caught either a mouse or a small rat and took it to a branch and ate it in three gulps before being harassed by a squirrel.



Christo returned to the rat dispensary a third time, probably because he hadn't had a sufficient meal yet.  However, someone unleashed their dog an let it run wild beneath him, forcing Christo to abandon his hunting plans.  He briefly perched on the traffic light over Avenue A, looking flustered.





As the sun set, Christo gave up all dinner plans and went to the east side of the park where he soaked in the last rays of the day.  I sat with him until dark (4:30pm) when he went to roost along 10th Street.



 After Christo was in his roosting spot for the night, Nora made a brief fly-by before heading north over the buildings.  It looked like she was either checking in, or making a note of his location.

What I've observed so far is Nora being a bit of a bully and Christo allowing it.  She's happy to catch her own food, or to steal his.  She assists in kicking other hawks out of the territory, but has yet to show any other mate behavior.  In the past, Christo and Dora went to work seriously on their nests in late January, so the next month should reveal more about what his happening with this new relationship.

Christmas hawk

On Christmas Day, this immature red-tailed hawk spent the afternoon hanging out on a fire escape on Avenue A and St Mark's Place.



The hawk spent a great deal of time watching pigeons fly back and forth from the rooftops to Tompkins Square Park across the street.



I took some video of the hawk here:



Eventually, the sun began to go down, casting shadows across the buildings.



The hawk remained in the last beam of light.



At last, the hawk took off towards the sun.











You can see its very-full crop, so the hawk must have eaten something just before I saw it on the fire escape.



The young hawk flew into a tree just inside the park and this caused Christo to immediately appear.



He wasn't happy about the young intruder in his territory and called out to Nora...



...who quickly arrived and flew around overhead (note her very dark wingtips).  Apparently, a visiting hawk sitting on a fire escape is allowed, but entering the park is crossing a line and will not be tolerated.



Christo and Nora chased the young hawk west on St Mark's Place.  This is the first time I've seen them really working together to defend the territory.

More to come...

Going through the motions

Questions remain about what is going on with the hawks in Tompkins Square.  Dora is still in rehab, and I've been told she's made some slight improvement, but I think it's going to be some time before she's able to return.  Meanwhile, Christo and his new gal-pal are hanging out in the park, but their relationship is still puzzling.



Over the weekend, I found the two of them in the ginkgo tree on the east side of the park.  The nest that Christo and Dora had been constructing is not much more than a loose gathering of leaves, but Christo seems to be working on it. Nora (NotDora) perches in the tree, but I have yet to see her do any nest-building.

Below, a squirrel checks on the hawks, but neither of them bothered to respond to it.



Christo has been especially passive recently, allowing other hawks to be in the park. I don't know if he is incapable of defending the territory on his own, or if he just doesn't care that they're around. Perhaps he expects Nora to kick out the intruders, as that seemed to be Dora's role in the relationship.

On Saturday, the pair perched together for some time on a Village View building on Avenue A.  In the past, I've seen Dora perch there, but I can't recall ever seeing Christo perch in that spot before.  While the red-tails hung out on the building, two Cooper's hawks (an adult and an immature) were present in the park.



Sunday afternoon, Christo and Nora perched in a tree on the south side of the park.



Christo then appeared to try and impress his lady by demonstrating his stick-breaking prowess.



Nora casually watched, but didn't join in. 







Christo flew the stick back to the ginkgo nest.





I took some video of Nora sitting quietly while Christo broke sticks from another tree.



During this time, an immature Cooper's hawk had been sitting in a tree on the west side of the park for about an hour.  Nora eventually flew over to it and forced it to leave the park.  That's the only action I've seen her take that demonstrates she is in control of the area.



At this time, Christo and Nora just don't seem to have the spark that Christo and Dora did.  They were (are) a well-bonded pair, and they worked very well together.  Christo and Dora both participated in gathering sticks and working on the nest.  Christo hunted for her and they shared food.  As far as I've seen, Nora is doing her own hunting.

Many questions remain.  Are Christo and Nora an official pair?  Is she just wintering in the park and will leave when nesting season begins?  Will other hawks come around and challenge either of them?  Maybe Nora just has a very different personality and this is the way things are.  I wish they could tell us.

A parting shot of Christo...

Christo seems confused by new relationship situation

I don't have any updates on Dora at this time other than she is eating well and resting.  She will not be released from rehab until she's 100% healthy, and that could take some time.

Meanwhile, I spent the weekend trying to figure out what's going on between Christo and the New Girl.  I'm going to refer to her as Nora for now (other suggestions I've heard have all been rather negative!).  I could call her Tompkins Adult Female #2, but that just doesn't seem right.

On Friday, it seemed she and Christo were getting along, but on Sunday, their behavior wasn't as friendly.  I watched as Nora flew at Christo, who was sitting atop the Christodora, and intimidated him off his perch.  In the photo below, Nora is on the left and Christo is on the right.



Christo flew off and I did not see them that close to each other for the rest of the afternoon.



Who is this new hawk?  What's her plan?  She stayed in and around the park for the remainder of the day and seemed to feel right at home.  She is not as wary as Dora and appears not to mind human activity.  Although I didn't see her land on a fence, she did get somewhat close, and had no problem diving for prey right along Avenue A.



As it was sunny, I was able to get a better look at her.  She has very dark wingtips, which are noticeable while flying.



She also has a lot of brown streaking on her chest and wing covers.





Nora is a very colorful hawk with rusty reddish brown markings and light gray feathers under and above her eyes.  Compare to Dora (below) whose head, wings and body markings are all dark chocolate brown.  Both hawks have dark heads and dark belly bands. 



After catching, and then dropping, a rat along Avenue A and 9th Street, Nora perched on a traffic light for a couple of minutes.



Opting not to go back for the rat, she flew to a fire escape a block down.  As she took off, we got a good look at the rusty coloring along her flanks and the light barring on her upper legs. You can also really see the gray "eyeliner" beneath her eye.







All afternoon, Nora kept perching in places where we'd normally see Dora.  This might be a coincidence, but she seemed to be very familiar with the park and surrounding area.  One of those perches was the cross at St Nicholas of Myra church on Avenue A and 10th Street.





Another was the cross at St Brigid's on Avenue B and 8th Street.



In addition to the church crosses, Nora has been seen at both nest sites, the Christodora building, and a few trees that Dora favored.  It made me wonder if this hawk had been watching the territory before moving in, or, has she been here before?  From what I observed over the weekend, this hawk appears not to care whether Christo is around or not.  She seems most interested in the territory itself.

Around 3:45pm, as the Holiday Tree lighting ceremony was gearing up, Nora perched in a tree to the west of the 7th Street park entrance while Christo perched in a tree to the east of the entrance.  They sat there like sentinels for a while until Nora dove down to the 7th Street playground and caught a rat.  Christo flew the same direction, but I lost track of him.

Instead of eating her rat in the park, Nora flew it around the corner to an air-conditioner on Avenue B.  I've never seen Christo or Dora do this - if they catch their food in the park, they usually eat it in the park.  If Dora was eating, Christo usually stood guard nearby, but he did not do that for Nora.



When she finished the rat, Nora flew to a cellphone tower on 6th Street and Avenue B where she was mobbed by a Cooper's hawk.  At sunset, she flew further down the Avenue, probably to a roosting place.

So, what does Christo think of all this?  I wish I could read his mind, but I can only speculate.  He has been behaving very passively towards this new hawk who is definitely the dominant of the pair.  He's not made any attempts to chase her away and has allowed her to hunt in his territory.  If they do not have a strong pair bond, who knows, maybe more hawks could come around and compete for the territory.  We'll have to wait and see what happens.


What are you thinking, Christo?


See more recent Tompkins Square hawk photos on my Flickr page.