PLEASE NOTE

The three previous items were posted late. You may not have seen them.

Blakeman on Violet's fate

Violet on November 26, 2011

John Blakeman, hawk expert from Ohio, wrote to Donna Browne [http://palemaleirregulars.blogspot.com/] with pessimistic thoughts about the future of Violet, the NYU red-tailed hawk recently in the public eye::

There is no hope for Violet. Absolutely nothing can be done to save, treat, or cure her debilitated foot. She's doomed. It is impossible for a hawk to live on only one leg. Sooner or later, the un-rested, always-stood-upon remaining foot will get bumblefoot, an infection and loss of tissue very similar to human bed sores. Once that begins, the hawk will die.

So far, bumblefoot hasn't set in, probably because she's able to spend some time in the air, allowing microcirculation in the foot. But in Dec and Jan, with 16 hours of cold nights, the leg will be stressed. The game will be over.

And nothing could be done to treat the dead foot if she is trapped. Bumblefoot and death would result, just as in the wild, but perhaps with a short delay.

The sad, biological truth is that Violet is doomed. My scenario is this. In a few weeks (or sooner), bumblefoot will set in. Violet will become sick and sedentary, and will fly off to an obscure building nook or cranny and die without human observation. She'll just disappear, unseen.

With that, a new floater female will fly in and in a week or less take up with Bobby. Pair bonding will occur. A new pair will take up reproduction at the NYU nest.

And once again, the band had absolutely nothing to do with any of Violet's tribulations. It was properly and safely applied, at the right size and right place (the tarsus), five years ago. The injury was a squirrel or rat bite that crushed bone and ripped tendons, ligaments, and cartilage. Healing was never complete. It couldn't have been. Too much tissue damage. She was fortunate to survive as long and as well as she did.

And some will ask how I can know all of this. Well, in the 70s and 80s I did hawk rehabbing and had several foot-injured hawks, caught in animal traps, with crushed toes or foot joints. I was able to save only those where a single toe was crushed, by the toe's amputation. When there was greater damage, the hawk had to stand on the

uninjured foot, which in time, usually a few weeks, always had lethal bumblefoot set in. My vet and I tried tetracycline treatments for the bumblefoot infection, but it never works. The bird always dies. Bumblefoot in one-legged hawks is universally fatal.

Violet isn't the first haggard (adult) or immature red-tail to die from injuries caused by prey attempted in capture. Rabbits and jack rabbits can give lethal and skin-tearing kicks. Even rats, if not quickly dispatched, can bite severely. And wings can be broken on limbs or fences when plunging onto fleeing prey. Many red-tails die with broken wings on the ground.

Life for red-tails is not always as calm or tranquil as it can appear in a Manhattan nest cam or through a pair of binoculars there. Sadly, we are witnessing the other side of red-tail life, the inevitable death that eventually frequents them all.

--John Blakeman

Milkweed and a HUMMINGBIRD

Photo by DAVID SPEISER http://www.lilibirds.com

Caroline Greenleaf, who has Regina Alvarez's old job as Woodlands Manager of Central Park [now called Community Relations Manager] writes in to answer an old question I asked about milkweed and to make a bird report:

Marie: I am finally getting back to you about the milkweed in the Garden. It is indeed an annual, tropical milkweed: Aesclepias curassavica. I have not done extensive research, but have not found any connection between this species and late pupation.

Thought you would also like to know that I had a hummingbird in back of the 79th Street Yard on Wed. morning. Way too late! It was looking for nectar in the few blossoms that the overly-warm November temps had coaxed out. I just hope it took off for parts south before the cold wave hit.

Hope to see you soon,

Caroline

Caroline Greenleaf

Community Relations Manager

Central Park Conservancy

fall warblers, kinglets, ducks and others

Palm Warbler in Central Park 10/20/08

photo by LLOYD SPITALNIK http://www.lloydspitalnikphotos. com

Tom Fiore reports:

Friday, 2 December, 2011

...A Prairie Warbler as well as a Palm Warbler continued near the Pool, first on the south side of the Great Hill and then the Prairie flew over to the south shoreline of the Pool itself where after some searching I re-found it west of the waterfall. The Palm Warbler seemed to stay in position on the hill. Not all that far away in the northern end of the park, but close to the Lasker skating rink, which is at the SW corner of the Meer, a very obliging Orange-crowned Warbler showed, at first near the rink, but then moving across the Drive to just south of the rink, or about 100 feet, perhaps less, east of the eastern end of the Loch where it flows beneath the park drive. It seemed to be of the eastern race, not as bright as some western Orange-crowneds can be.

I was not able to find any warblers in the Ramble ...but did see a number of birds moving around on the slopes in conifers of Cedar Hill, including both species of Kinglet, Brown Creeper, numerous Slate-colored Juncos, & some others. There also were a few Golden, & at least one Ruby-crowned Kinglet[s] in the north end of the park. A look around the SE portion of the park yielded little other than thousands of visiting tourists but there was a Hermit Thrush near the Pond.

The reservoir had a decent collection of ducks and other waterbirds, including 2 Pied-billed Grebes, at least 22 American Coots,a female Green-winged Teal, 50+ N. Shovelers, 45+ Gadwall, 5+ Hooded Mergansers, and 40+ Ruddy Ducks, plus a few Bufflehead, the latter species also in modest numbers at the Pool and on the Meer. At least one pair of Wood Ducks were on the Lake and a female was at the Pond, semi-hiding at the time I spotted her. Gulls sorted through on the reservoir appeared to be of the 3 most regularly-seen spp.

Good birding,

Tom Fiore,

Bat Postscript

Red Bat
Another bat communication from David Barrett:

Marie,

When trying to identify the bat that I reported, I chanced upon your commentary in the New York Times regarding Central Park bats. I ended up getting some email responses from birders who also watch for bats, and the consensus is that I probably saw a red bat, since it is the one most likely to hunt during the day. I did notice a hint of red in its fur, and the size corresponds well so that is what I am now thinking it was.

I understand from your article and elsewhere that bats are common in the Park, but this is the first one I have seen in the last year, so for me it was a fun sighting!

Best,

David Barrett

Here's what I wrote in the Times Q&A column in 2010:

Q.

I’m curious to learn what species of bats you observe at Central Park, and how many. Here in Olympia, Wash., the large lake in the center of the city has summer visitors of more than 3,000 bats a night; many of these are pregnant, then nursing, female little brown and Yuma bats.

— Posted by Judy Olmstead

We don’t really know how many bats show up in Central Park — nobody’s ever done a bat count. But here are the five species that have been sighted in the park so far: big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus); little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus); eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis); northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis); silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans).

The time to find bats in Central Park, as everywhere else, is a little after sunset, when light is failing but you can still easily make out shapes. You can see our only flying mammals swooping over the shores of the lake, or Turtle Pond, or any of the other bodies of water on most summer evenings, but you have to have an eye for them. Most passers-by unfamiliar with the odd pattern of bat flight simply think they are birds and don’t give them another look. Of course a bat detector can be helpful in finding bats in other places throughout the park. In the Ramble and other woodlands you can often find bats hunting around the decorative street lamps dotting the pathways. The light attracts moths, and the moths attract bats. Yum.