Christo serves up dinner, Dora reluctantly accepts leftovers

Saturday afternoon in Tompkins Square was crisp and beautiful, perfect weather for hawk-hunting.

And, for hunting hawks.



After two attempts, Christo nabbed a mouse on the east side of the park and appeared to stash it in a tree.  I say "appeared" because he didn't eat it, and he didn't have it in his talons when he left the tree.

He spent some time soaking in the late afternoon sun and watching the activity on the basketball courts.



Meanwhile, Dora perched on a high branch near the Temperance fountain. 



Christo briefly joined her in the tree before taking off towards the park offices.



Dora looked on as Christo passed by.



Behind the offices, Christo quickly caught a rat.



I was surprised to see such a large rat, as sightings are fairly rare in the park these days thanks to an effective rat control program using dry ice.







After adjusting his grip, Christo flew the rat up to a branch where he could eat it.





This branch has a formation on it that serves as a kitchen table.



I don't usually post gory things, but I find it interesting that Christo often discards some rat parts that he doesn't like to eat for what ever reason.  In the photo below, that stringy bit got kicked off the branch...



...and I was able to get a closer look.  It looks like maybe the stomach, intestine, and some other part of the digestive tract.  Christo has been known to discard the stomach, so perhaps he doesn't like the taste of it, or maybe it's instinctual to not eat it.  If anyone out there knows these things, I'm curious.

After eating most of the rat, Christo moved aside and cleaned his face, indicating to Dora that it was her turn to finish off the leftovers.  I've noticed lately that Christo does not deliver food to her, but has her come and get it herself.  Maybe taking food to her is only done during the breeding season - and here I thought he was just a nice guy! 

As I recently posted, Dora does not like to come very close to people.  She always keeps her distance.  If a hawk is sitting on the flag pole, the light poles, or on the fences in the park, I can guarantee it's either Christo or a juvenile.  He has a high tolerance for people, but Dora is much more cautious. 

On this day, she seemed not to like where Christo left the food.  The rat was on a branch that is about ten feet high and out of the reach of people, but she clearly acted uncomfortable at the prospect of having to go to that location.  I was with three other people and we moved back about 30-40 feet.  Even so, she warily eyed us for several minutes before she made a move.



Eventually, she flew to an adjacent branch to get a better look at the food and to keep an eye on the humans.  We all stayed still and she slowly crept down the branch.



When she reached the food, she made a quick grab and took her meal to a tall tree in another part of the park.



Although the hawks are urban birds, they are still wild and not tame.  Most people understand the need to keep a respectable distance and let them do their thing.  Christo often flies and lands very close to people which makes him seem friendly, but he is not.  And when he is hunting, it's important to keep in mind that people walking right up to him are likely interfering with his ability to catch prey. 

More to come...

Dora the Enforcer

It's never a dull day in Hawk Land, especially when juvenile red-tails keep invading Christo and Dora's territory.  On Friday afternoon, Dora did battle with one high over Tompkins Square.

Below, Dora is on the left and the juvenile is on the right.



This was a particularly small juvenile, so it may have been a male.  Note their size difference.



Dora crept up from behind...



The young hawk took evasive action.



Dora came at the intruder from below.  I saw her pull this vertical move just over a year ago when she went after an intruding Peregrine falcon.



Dora gets the upper hand...





The juvenile did not back down easily.



Finally, the stubborn invader took off to the east and Dora went south.

 

During this time, Christo retreated to the park.  He seems to be responsible for holding down the fort while Dora goes to combat in the air.

Hectic hawk weekend - Part 2

Sunday was a busy day for red-tailed hawk, Christo.  When I arrived in Tompkins Square, he made himself known within minutes by landing in a tree right in front of me.  After appearing to hunt pigeons on the west side of the park, and then on the east, something grabbed his attention and he started calling.



High in the sky over Avenue B, Dora (below, right) was sparring with an intruding juvenile red-tail (below, left).

She seemed to be handling herself just fine, so Christo remained in the park, but stayed vigilant.



A short while later, a juvenile Cooper's hawk flew through the park.

This was the second Cooper's sighting of the day.

After spotting the hawk, Christo took off east, in the direction it had gone.



In my previous post, I noted that Dora is usually the one I see doing battle with intruding hawks.  This time, I watched as Christo and the Cooper's got aggressive with each other high up over Avenue B and 3rd Street.  In the photos below, the Cooper's is on the left and appears to be chasing Christo.

I lost sight of them when they headed south and then west, behind some buildings.  Over the last few weeks, the red-tails have been highly tolerant of the Cooper's hawks in their territory, so I don't know why Christo lost his patience this day.  Maybe the red-tails have been too lenient allowing the Cooper's to take food from their territory.  I can only speculate.

Just before sunset, Christo returned to his usual post on the flagpole outside the park offices.



From there, he flew behind the bathrooms where he had a showdown with a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.



Catching the last rays of sun...



When Christo eventually flew off, I lost him.  So, I went to see Dora, who was perched on the cross at St Nicholas of Myra church on Avenue A and 10th Street.  I could see that her attention was focused on something to my right.  Just at that moment, a commotion broke out on the street and people were snapping pictures with their phones. I turned to see Christo about twenty feet away on a fence with a mouse.  I'd been standing there looking at Dora and completely missed Christo making the catch!



He ate the mouse in less than five minutes and still looked to be hunting. I wondered Dora was expecting him to catch her some dinner, or if he was still hungry.  Thanks to a very effective rat control program in the park, there haven't been any big rats to catch since early summer, so seeing Christo catch a rodent at all has become a fairly rare event.



As it got dark, the hawks were still active, but it became too difficult to see them flying around the park.  I've been wondering if the hawks have been doing any hunting after dark.  They are diurnal birds, but I've seen Christo catch rats after dark before.  Now that the rat population in the park is greatly diminished, perhaps the hawks have had to adapt and have extended hunting hours in order to have the best chance of finding rats as they emerge from their burrows in the evening.  Again, this is just speculation, but is something I'm trying to determine.

See more recent hawk photos here.

Previously:  Hectic hawk week - Part 1

Hectic hawk weekend - Part 1

I spent some quality time with Christo this last weekend as he hunted in Tompkins Square and defended his territory against several intruders.

On Friday afternoon, I found him perched next to the new nest near the ping pong table.  The hawks have not done any work on it recently, but it seems to be holding together pretty well.



Christo then perched atop the Christodora building on Avenue B.



After a few minutes, he dove off.  The hawks usually take off from this high perch by jumping up and flying out horizontally.  This time, he leaned forward and came straight down the side of the building.









At this point, a tree got in the way and I wasn't able to capture Christo's impressive swoop to the ground and then an upward loop right past my face.  Lucky for me, there was another bystander there to witness the spectacular feat.

Christo made two more of these dives off the Christodora before heading across the park to check out the view from St Nicholas of Myra church on Avenue A.



The pigeons didn't seem to mind his presence.



As it got dark, Christo went behind the park offices to look for dinner.



He came up with small rat, whose feet you can see below on the branch.  Christo ate it in less than ten minutes.



Saturday was beautifully sunny and I found Christo casually hunting near the Temperance fountain.



Suddenly, his attention went to the sky and he sounded the intruder alarm.



The following all happened in the blink of an eye.  Dora flew into the park from the south and both she and Christo circled above the central lawn screaming.  They were chasing a large juvenile red-tail (below).

Dora aggressively went after the juvenile and slammed it with her talons.  As the three red-tails tussled over the lawn, a Cooper's hawk shot through the park from west to east, and then this Peregrine.  Raptor chaos!

The action all happened so fast, my head spun.  Fortunately, there were several hawk-watchers present to witness the sequence of events.

Drama over, we're back to where we began, with Christo perched next to the new nest.



I've noticed that Christo spends a lot of time guarding the park while Dora patrols the outer boundaries.  They both join in to escort intruders out of the area, but Christo usually returns to the park while Dora is more often the one I see engaging in battle.  This isn't a hard and fast rule (stay tuned for Part 2), but the hawks seem to have particular job responsibilities when it comes to maintaining their turf.

Thanksgiving leftovers

Despite another overcast and dreary sky this last Sunday, Christo and Dora were active in the neighborhood.  Much of the activity took place high in the sky, or some distance away, so I was lucky to catch them both in Tompkins Square late in the day.

Just as I was about to give up on seeing any hawks in the park, Dora appeared in the SW corner of the park where she picked up a stashed pigeon in a tree.  I'm assuming Christo left it there for her.





She flew the pigeon all the way across the park, to the tall locust near the Avenue B and 9th Street entrance.



As Dora ate, Christo kept watch from atop the Christodora building.



As soon as Dora was done eating, she gave the signal and Christo smoothly glided down...





...and landed next to her on the branch.  His landing was not as elegant as his glide.



As Christo finished off the leftovers, Dora took off and headed back west across the park.  I lost track of her, so don't know where she settled to digest her meal.



Christo, post-meal.



The clouds broke up just as the sun was about to set.  Christo returned to the top of the Christodora where he could have one more look around his territory before heading off to roost for the night.