Saturday, March 11, 2006

Hawkbench Geography Lesson

From left to right in the photo , it is Linda,
The Squashed Building, Ugly White Condo, The Lion, and
The Crows. In foreground, Samantha Browne-Walters.


Close-up of The Lion

To the right, south, of the Ugly White Condo is the
building called The Lion. Why The Lion? Look
carefully at the closeup. See those trilobite shapes
between the windows on the second row from the top?
In real life those are decorative lion heads. Honest.

The near corner of The Lion is a handy spot for
copulation, or hunting, and the roof is sometimes used
for stashing prey. A careful look will also show a
nifty vented chimney for higher perching as well.

Abutting The Lion to the south is The Crows. I'm told
that in the early days of hawk watching in Central
Park, a family of crows considered that building
theirs when it came to territory. Therefore if the
Red-tails ventured into the personal space of the
crows, the hawks would be mobbed. Last season there
were no crows protecting The Crows, and Pale Male or
Lola could perch on the roof antennas without fear of
molestation.

Get out your magnifying glass. There are two antennas
centered on the water tower cover.

Last season if both Pale Male and Lola happened to be
out of the immediate area, a little male Kestrel would
perch quite brazenly on an antenna in their absence.

Who's the little blonde that's been pressed into note
taking service in the fore ground? That's Samantha
Browne-Walters. She's often recognized by visitors as
the actress that played the daughter on the ABC sitcom
"Life With Bonnie". She has her own website:

www.browne-walters.com
.

That's it folks. Now you know. Those are the
buildings and the names that keep coming up repeatedly
in the field notes.

Donna Browne