Red-tailed Hawk youngsters, Riverside Park, NYC, 18 June 2009
Hi All
went down to the Riverside nest (in Manhattan’s Upper West Side) this afternoon to check out the three youngsters, one of which has properly fledged, one of which still seems to be in the advanced branching stage, and the third which is still in the nest. As I arrived an adult swooped in with a squirrel, which was a pretty spectacular thing to see. I was very keen to lay my eyes on some NYC Red-tails after spending 6 weeks in this amazing city last year with them while shooting a programme for SABC’s Healing Power of Nature series.
The light was shocking so the images are not great (800 ISO and hail-Mary shutter speeds with no depth of field) but here is the nest-bound youngster and the advanced ‘short-flight’ brancher (note crops bulging with squirrel meat).
Curious little buggers, young Buteo jamaicensis — they’re constantly looking around. If the one on the nest did not fledge just after I left I’m sure it’ll go in the next couple of days. It was standing around a lot on the edge of the nest and eyeballing the ground met ernstige mening.
You can read more about the Riverside Red-tails at Bruce Yolton’s blog
http://urbanhawks.blogs.com/urban_hawks/
Cheers
Adam
What camera are you using? Can you recommend an easy to use alternative? ATB
This is a really great shot Adam. Looks like you know what you’re doing w/ a camera. This shot reminds me of two birding events which didn’t have good outcomes for me. 1) I missed a once in a lifetime shot of a Great Horned Owl while Nordic skiing in Montana. He was looking down at me w/ his huge yellow eyes. He was perched only about 5 meters up on branch covered in fresh fallen snow. It was magnificent – the lighting was right, the evergreen tree bark was the perfect hue of reddish w/ snow clinging to the bark and on the branches. It was superb… and my camera was back at the house. I was out exercising, not photographing. Who would have thought? Lesson learned.
2) I was trying to take a pictue of 2 colorful lorikeets in Australia perched just over my head. Just before I snapped, One (or both) shat all over my camera lens and forehead
:(