As I headed to the ball field at 24th St. by the Art Museum, the formel (Mom) flew out of nowhere and landed on the lamp pole right in front of me.
Here's a map of the area - thanks to Scott Kemper - with an arrow pointing at the ball field.
If you pull up a Google satellite map of the Ben Franklin Parkway/Art Museum area, you can see how many pockets of greenery, bushes and trees there are stuffed of rodents and birds. Hawk smorgasbord!
The formel looked down at me as if to say, "There you are - now get over to the ball field where all the action will be." She flew and I followed.
Sure enough, when I reached the ball field there was an eyass sitting on the fence beside the batting cage clutching some prey. Scott, Joe and Carolyn had seen it pick up the carcass - a rat - from the ground below.
The eyass flew with the rat in its talons from the fence to a nearby pine branch. Although it had prey, this eyass let out a couple of food calls. When we saw the flies buzzing around, and then caught the whiffs of decaying flesh, we realized this was definitely not a fresh kill. Was the eyass calling out for fresh food?
The eyass then settled into its meal, finding the not-fresh flesh tough to tear...
... into swallowable chunks.
It drooled a little after finishing its meal.
As always, we found a haggard keeping watch...
...in this case, the tiercel (Dad) from a nearby tree.
The haggards' feathers are starting to look a bit moth-eaten as they enter their summer molt phase. As the tiercel flew down the field...
... and landed on the goal post, his missing tail feather was apparent.
He then took up that characteristic talon-resting position that renders him instantly comical.
With three of the four Franklin hawks accounted for, I headed down the Parkway to see if I could find the other eyass. As I neared 21st Street, I found Sandy Sorlien and her husband, John, gazing up into the shrubbery that lines the fence alongside the Vine Street Expressway, and sure enough, there was the other eyass, beak agape and panting in the ever increasing temperature.
Sandy and John reported that the eyass had just captured a mouse down in the undergrowth, but had left it lying on a log.
Right beside it was the pile of grass and weeds that the eyass had grabbed in its talons as it pounced on the mouse, and did not release until the mouse was dead.
Strangely enough, having caught the mouse, the eyass showed no further interest in it. It continued to perch up above, and then moved closer to us down onto the fence, panting even more heavily.
The temperature at this point was already in the 90s. It then hopped back up into the trees, and started on some personal grooming: wiping its beak on the branch...
... and then preening. Hawks often close their eyes when preening. Their eyelids are reptilian, closing from the bottom up.
This eyass was seemingly oblivious to its freshly killed mouse down below on the log. I can only think that it is now hunting so well that it is not impelled to immediately eat everything it catches. The heat might also have a negative affect its appetite.
Here are John, Sandy, Scott and Joe planning their next move...
... and Joe and Scott taking a final shot.
When I saw these two images that Sandy took standing in exactly the same spot, I was again struck by the unique urban wilderness we experience in following these hawks.
By moving her camera lens only a couple of feet, we move from the wild young hawk perched in the glade to the glass and steel skyscrapers towering over the Franklin Institute.
We headed back to the ball field to check on the other three hawks who had sensibly decided to take an early siesta in the now almost unbearable heat and humidity. Here are Joe, Carolyn and Scott taking a breather before we all headed home to start on the rest of our Saturday commitments.
Sunday:
So next morning with the heat wave easing slightly, I headed back into Philadelphia to see what the happy hawks were up to for their Sunday activities. It was great to have Kay Meng, back from vacation, joining Carolyn, Joe and me.
It didn't take long for the first eyass to appear on what is proving to be one of their favorite hunting perches - the football goal posts on the ball field at 24th Street.
During the next two hours we were treated to a hunting extravaganza from this eyass who was clearly hungry. It launched its attacks on anything that moved...
... or what it thought had moved...
- in this case, a rat-like stick.
It really thought it had live prey...
... and looked frustrated that it had been fooled by a dumb old stick.
It would then return to the goal post to catch its breath and look for the next hunting opportunity.
This eyass was trying so hard to catch something, and we were all willing it on. It saw a small rabbit near the fence and set out low to the ground with deadly, silent speed.
It almost caught it, but the fortunate rabbit scooted under the fence at the last second...
... and the eyass had to put on the brakes to avoid a crash landing
We could sense the eyass's mounting frustration at being unable to land any prey.
Perch, pant, regroup....
... and then try, try again.
Its sibling sat preening on a nearby dead branch, with the smug "I've had my breakfast already," look. The apartment building in the background is part of the Park Towne Place complex that runs alongside the Parkway.
Meanwhile, a quiet drama was unfolding at the far end of the field where the formel (Mom) sat watching from a tree.
If you look closely at my blurry image, you can see a squirrel on the branch right above Mom's head. This had to be a commando colleague of the Parkway Stare You Down squirrel from a couple of days ago.
Instead of creeping quietly away, this guy kept yammering away at the hawk, totally attracting attention to itself. She menacingly turned around to eye it...
Kay Meng
... but in similar fashion to cat bird attacks, she basically ignored this squirrel-with-a-death-wish.
Back at the hunting fields, our hard-working hawk finally was able to catch a moving target.... a very slow moving target!
But hey, worms are protein too! And now the eyass was a roll, next finding a bug in the grass. The bug must have been making a strange sound to elicit this reaction from the hawk.
The fearless photographers, Kay and Joe, took advantage of the bleachers to set up their shots
Della Micah
Then, the eyass's persistence paid off. Something caught its eye.
It flew fiercely toward the fence....
... avoiding one of the many swallows flitting around the field...
... and pounced hard.
"Please don't let this be another stick," we all breathed...
But no stick this time!
Joe Debold
The eyass had FINALLY caught something worth eating - a field vole.
It had some trouble... dispatching... its prey...
...but finally had the situation under control, and flew with its now dead vole to the roof of the field house...
... and then to the goal post to begin its hard-earned feast.
At first, it started pulling off relatively small morsels...
..but as its eating frenzy increased...
... the body parts it swallowed got larger...
... until it just gulped down in one huge beakful the ENTIRE remainder of the vole
Now totally gorged, it didn't bother to clean up the remaining body parts splattered on the goal post..
... before flying a bit heavily to a nearby tree.
The crowd was pretty much silenced after that gore fest! Then a check to see if the cameras caught all the action.
Della Micah
And now to finish, here are some more lovely head shots of the eyasses...
As always, I must express my deep appreciation to Joe, Kay and Scott for these incomparable images. We are blessed to have such generous, talented photographers so willing to share their magnificent images.
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