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
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.
Looking me right in the eye. I wonder if those eyes are spotting future prey already?
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 those wings. It’ll be about a month more before they leave the nest.
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, taking a break from the nest, floating on the wind above Tompkins Square Park.
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
The Park in the Dark
After watching videos about the history of the 6th&B Garden I wandered over to Tompkins to see what I could capture of the park in the dark without a tripod. I rested my camera on the fences to get these shots.
The Samuel Cox statue at the SW entrance to the park.
This shot of what I call the Central Elm is especially spooky with the moon above.
Checking Out the Leaning Elm
Next to the Krishna Tree in the central plaza of the park is another American Elm that I call the Leaning Elm. It leans at about a 45 degree angle and is supported by two cables attached to the upright and strong Krishna Tree. I think there is a case to be made that they support each other.
I knew these park’s arborists were checking out the health of the tree when I saw them tapping the trunk with a mallet and figured it was some form of tomography. I’m glad they are taking such care to quantify the structural integrity of the tree. We don’t want to lose this treasure of a tree, but it does lean over the benches and it could be a disaster if it fell. We’ve lost three American Elms in the park this years so far. One bit of good news is that there are plans to plant new blight resistant cultivars of American Elms in the park. Picus Sonic Tomograph
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