Red-tailed Hawk landing on nest, Bobst Library, NYU, New York City

Month: January 2013

Snowy Hawk flyby and WSP Mockingbird – January 26th, 2013

A friend and I took a subway adventure today, disembarking at a random stop in Queens. The objective was to explore an area of the city we’d never set foot on before. We’d done it before (two weeks ago) and had a fun time. During that trip I was lucky to see and take a video of a Red-tail eating a squirrel in Prospect Park. That video will be in an upcoming post.

Today, we wound up in Jamaica, Queens. We were approaching the corner of 160th Street and Jamaica Avenue when I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk circling above a Bally Total Fitness club building. The underside of the Hawk was snowy white. It was so beautiful.

We walked toward where the Hawk seemed to descend (on or just behind the Bally’s). We searched the few blocks in the vicinity so I could finally take some photos of it but it was gone. Oh well! It was pretty fun to see this Hawk in a completely different area of town. My friend quipped that he simply cannot take me anywhere; that there’s always some Hawk around! 🙂

We visited Washington Square Park at the end of the day. I did not see either Bobby or Rosie Hawk. A fellow Hawk-watcher saw both of them yesterday but did not see them during her morning visit to the park today.

A Mockingbird was hanging out at a flower bed:

Continue to the full post… “Snowy Hawk flyby and WSP Mockingbird – January 26th, 2013”


Almost too cold for birding – January 23rd, 2013

Today was the second day of freezing temperatures in the area. It was about 19 degrees when I visited Central Park today. Of course, it really felt like 7 degrees thanks to the wind!

Grand Army Plaza was almost completely empty of tourists and anyone else for that matter. But what I noticed right away was the lack of carriage horses and drivers that usually line the park. It was really weird not having them around.

I saw an ASPCA vehicle parked where carriages line up in the plaza. I wondered if maybe a law passed the day before banning the horse-drawn carriage industry in the park and if the enforcement officer was there to ensure the law was being followed.

Continue to the full post… “Almost too cold for birding – January 23rd, 2013”