Christo, Dora and the Kids


I set up my light weight tripod on Avenue B and pointed my camera at the nest. For the first hour nothing happened, but then the hawks woke up. The kids stretch their wings, projectile poop out the nest onto 9th Street and Dad (Christo) bring Mom (Dora) a rat dinner. It should only get more exciting in the nest over the next 3 weeks as they grow and strengthen their wings getting ready to fledge.

Christo and Dora and the Chicks

Look over there
What’s mom looking at? The babies are losing their fluffy white cuteness, but they are still somewhat adorable, and it’s really cool that we are able to see them popping up in their shallow nest from seven floors down. For the best coverage from the ground go to Laura Goggin’s Hawk coverage on the GogBlog.

Lookouts
Looking me right in the eye. I wonder if those eyes are spotting future prey already?
Mother and Chicks
There are three chicks. Here’s a video from Francois Portman who switches on the video for the GoPro nestcam with a remote from the street.

The latest nest photos and videos are available here: fotoportmann.com/birds

Stretch Wings
Stretch those wings. It’ll be about a month more before they leave the nest.

Cristo and Dora
Cristo on the left and Dora on the right. Males are smaller than the females. Dora has more dark feathers on her chest and belly.

Dora  in Flight Dora, taking a break from the nest, floating on the wind above Tompkins Square Park.

On the Cross
I think this is Dora (stockier build and darker feathers) resting for a short while on the cross on top of St. Brigid’s. Shortly after this she left at the prompting of a Bluejay.

More Tompkins Square Park Hawks from BulldogLloyd (Pam} on Flickr

Jeremy Seto has some great shots of Raptors in NYC