Redtail report - Part I

The Riverside Park pair

Photo by Bruce Yolton http://www.urbanhawks.blogs.com
[Please note: a third chick was discovered after this photo was taken]

One of the Riverside Park hawkwatchers, Eleanor Macdonald, sent in a report yesterday 5/7/08:
[This nest is in the park around 81st Street.]

Dear Marie,

I spent a bit less than two hours at the 79th Street Riverside Park nest from 2:15 to 4:00 pm this afternoon. There was the usual treat of three fuzzy heads popping up to be fed, a few trips by the formel to gather bark strips and twigs to build up the nest, the bringing of a meal (pigeon?) to the nest and the killing and eating of a squirrel by the tiercel.* At about 3:45 the formel * gave two piercing alarm cries from the nest which were echoed from elsewhere in the Park, and suddenly there were three Red Tailed Hawks in the air over the nest area. The resident pair seem to have driven off the intruder in a short time; the formel soon returned to the nest to feed her brood and she then resumed twig gathering. What an afternoon!

* tiercel and formel are falconry terms for male and female hawks

The Fordham [Bronx] redtails Rose and Hawkeye:

Rich Fleisher, a professor of political science at Fordham, wrote on May 5:
:
Hawkeye and Rose clearly have at least two healthy chicks (see picture). They were clearly sticking their heads above the top of the nest and I saw Rose feed them on several occasions.

[Other redtail nests throughout the city are active. More reports soon.]