Happy hopes for Thanksgiving

Lola and her first chicks - April, 2002
Photo by Lincoln Karim



First a note from a regular website correspondent responding to my posting of Nov. 21. Then a response from John Blakeman to the same photo.

Dear Marie,

Mating season is exactly what I thought when I saw Lincoln’s photos. Holy cow! Is it that time again? Hope springs eternal and I cannot help but want to grab your book Red Tails In Love and grab my Pale Male DVD and dive in again. I can almost feel my heart racing thinking that we may see another brood of chicks. Wouldn’t it be wonderful? It makes the tough New England winter bearable. Hope you are well. Always enjoy your web site’s dialogue, I learn so much.

Best Regards,

Nan Holmes

And from John Blakeman:

Yes, Lincoln's photos of the pair with descended legs is absolutely the very first sexual expression of the coming breeding season. The birds have experienced marked reduction in day length, and this photoperiod change moderately bumps their pituitary glands into action. A very slight elevation of breeding hormones has been released.

With abundant food, Pale Male and Lola don't have to spend most of their waking hours searching for the next meal, as our rural red-tails must do at this time of the year. The Manhattan red-tails have the physiological freedom to allow themselves to respond to the slightly increased sexual prompts the hormones are allowing. Out here in rural Ohio, my wild hawks must concentrate solely on finding food. We don't see any sexual foot-dragging at this time of the year. Pale Male and Lola, however, can wonderfully digress into initial procreative activities. No red-tails anywhere live better than they do.

--John Blakeman