Raptor Wednesday

A new Red-tailed Hawk nest on a Park Slope church. The nest got some media attention. Evidently the church fathers thought it would be fitting that there be a contest to name the birds, encapsulating Christianity’s misguided view of nature. I haven’t see any sign of hawks yet. My last pass by was Monday. The alcove may be too deep fro a ground-dweller to see a bird on the nest. Or they may have moved elsewhere. There is a smaller collection of sticks in the next alcove on the NE. (You may remember that the Gowanus fire escape nest also had two nearby nest attempts). The rapidly filling out street trees were reducing the view as I stood there.Just a few blocks away on 5th Avenue, a hole in a cornice makes for a classic urban American Kestrel nest. Friends tracked this down after noting Kestrels around and about their neighborhood. As you can see from this photo, I had no luck my first visit.

Daily Raptor has indeed slowed down: something like half of all local raptors should be on eggs or feeding young now, meaning there are that many less to see regularly. If you check the 55 Water St. falcon cam (not in the mornings, though, when direct sunlight makes for awful viewing), you might see some feeding.

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WildlifeNYC is a city-sponsored effort to get people more aware of their neighbors. The press release is worth reading.