"Number 3 went to the vet on Thursday and the cast was removed. Dr. Boutette was very pleased with the healing he observed on the x-ray taken after the cast came off. He recommends another few weeks of treatment at the clinic to ensure the newly healed bone is hard and strong to be able to take the kind of impact it will need to do when the bird lands from full speed. Nevertheless, Dr. Boutette is very happy with the progress and says the hawk's prognosis is 'excellent'."
Additional information on #3 comes from Carolyn Sutton who volunteers at the SWRC:
"Just returned from my volunteer shift at the SWRC. #3 is doing well and the cast is off, but the doctors prefer s/he be kept in the small cage for another week or so to make sure her fracture is completely healed. Our feisty FI friend is NOT a happy camper."
* * * * * *
Does everyone know that if you click on an image on the blog, you can see it enlarged? And then your back button will take you back to the blog.
This past weekend provided some extraordinary moments with the Franklin Institute eyasses. It all began just before sunrise on Saturday morning on the river side of the Art Museum. Both haggards sat quietly together on a lamp pole.
The full moon was setting behind the hawks when Scott caught these absolutely amazing images.
I sent these pictures to John Blakeman who commented:
"The photos of the hawks sitting out on poles at night are wonderful. I've noticed this many times. Red-tails in all seasons of the year will commonly roost for the night on lone poles or open tree branches, fully exposed to the night air.
But this happens only in the absence of winds or heavy rains. The birds seem to know what the night's weather will be, that there will be no adverse winds or precipitation. This "pole-roosting" happens under meteorological "high" conditions, under a high pressure system, with little or no winds.
How the birds discern what the night's winds and weather will be, I don't know. But they are very good at this. If you see a Red-tail sitting out on a ledge or light pole at dusk, there simply will be no winds that night. Temperatures are not considered. I've seen Red-tails on utility poles awakening at dawn in winter when temperatures were sub-zero. Winds are the real factor."
--John Blakeman
Dawn broke, reflected on the Cira building.
The hawks meanwhile were joined by their offspring, and each bird sat on its own lamp pole, watching for the first unwary rodent to appear.
Memo to self: Get a bigger camera lens....
It's not only Philadelphia's gorgeous architecture to which we are exposed on our hawkstalking adventures. This tunnel under the Art Museum circle is one of the primo rat areas for the hawks. They sit outside waiting up on lamp poles for breakfast to appear...
... and they don't have to wait long. The tiercel swooped down and back up to his pole with a large rat, and instantly one of the eyasses flew over, snatched it and took off for a nearby tree.
He perched for a while trying unsuccessfully to fend off an attacking mocking bird. You can see the rat's legs and tail hanging below the branch.
He took off to a new tree clutching his rat...
Scott Kemper... and started to "unpeel" it with great difficulty. Rat skin is much tougher to deal with than ripping feathers off a bird.
Scott KemperWhen the mocking bird started harassing again, the eyass took off down to the tree glades by the river.
The eyasses fly in complete silence with no flapping or rustling sounds - only a whoosh of displaced air in their wake if one is in their flight path. It's easy to see how an unwary rodent or bird may have very little warning of the final approach. This guy was oblivious to the hawk crossing inches above him.
Beetles are a trusted breakfast snack, always available to the hawk-eyed hunter...
... willing to do some stomping...
... to get its prey.
It is I, The Great Beetle Slayer...
When the eyasses have eaten, it's time to practice the basic hunting technique of pounce-and-grab. Optimally, of course, one would practice with live prey, but when one is an inexperienced eyass, that's hard to come by, so one makes do what is at hand...or talon.
Sometimes a branch...
Sometimes a plastic bag... ahh, memories of home sweet nest!
And then to kick it up a bit, savaging a discarded t-shirt...
... into abject submission!
The eyasses are constantly in each other's business, always checking in to see what's up.
Sometimes, it seems they do it on purpose, pretending to catch something right in front just to annoy the other sibling.
But they are definitely a team that hangs together.
Their intense curiosity provided some moments of high hilarity for us on Saturday. One of the eyasses, thinking it had finally hit the prey jackpot, swooped menacingly down onto a tightly rolled up newspaper...
Then mantled strongly to warn away all comers as it crushed the life out of the paper with a talon death grip.
Uh oh... where's the blood and fur?
The eyass continued to wrestle the paper to the ground...
... and then tried to skin it! Meanwhile, we were all shaking with silent laughter!
Joe DeboldJust as we were recovering from the Battle of the Newspaper, the other eyass was creeping up on someone sleeping outside. The hawk was making a stealthy around-the-tree approach to the sleeping bag stretched out behind.
Now that the weather is warm, a number of homeless people prefer to sleep outside. We have gotten to know some of the "regulars" along the Parkway, many of whom share our enthusiasm for the hawks and are valuable sources of hawk whereabouts in the early morning.
This guy, however, was oblivious (we hoped!) to the deadly predator fast approaching.
We had no idea what might happen next...
I had visions of the hawk jumping up onto the sleeping bag, and then all getting the fright of their lives.
But it ended without drama as the curious young hawk found something else with which to distract itself.
Saturday's hawkstalk ended as the sun rose higher. Amidst all the morning's comedy, there were moments of sublime beauty.
I continue to marvel that we see all this right in the middle of one of the country's largest metropolises.
The intersection of wild nature with high art is breathtaking.
But that's not all, folks....I'm working on Sunday!
Posts
Love, love, love your postings!!! Thank you! Kim Killeri
ReplyDeleteReally amazing photos & great commentary! Kudos to you all for capturing these images and sharing them with us - much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for the update on #3 as well.
This is one superb blog. Della, you are an excellent and funny narrator, equal to the photographs you choose. I must say that you and the photographers are a great team. Thanks for all your efforts.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, great story!! Thanks Della for your wonderful blog. I never get tired of coming here daily to check out and recheckout the all story. Congratulations to all the photographers, here Joe and Scott. The pictures are excellent. Della, I was very happy to know that expectations about eyass #3 are optimistic. Hope you can tell us more in a week or so and definitely I'm curious if she will be reliased in the nest or elsewhere. Hugs from Portugal, Cristina
ReplyDeleteWow - Portugal! How did you find out about the hawks? Great to have readers in Europe! So glad you are enjoying the blog. Thanks for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteDella
Thank you thank you again (again!) for gorgeous pictures and amusing commentary. I wish I could frame some of these and put them on my wall. Glad to have the good news about #3 as well.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I cannot believe John and I missed all this and WE WERE THERE on the Parkway Saturday from 6-8 AM! We walked all up and down the Parkway but obviously did not go around the back of the Art Museum. Dang!!! We saw zero eyasses (though around the north softball field I thought I heard one crying) and were heading back to our car by the FI in disappointment when John spotted a haggard flying very high. It landed on the very top of one of those tall Parkway apt buildings past 22nd St. It perched on the edge for a few moments, then suddenly it dived spectacularly all the way down into the foliage by 676. So we did get to see that. Thanks to you all for the incredible photographs and reporting. So sorry we missed you. Will try again tomorrow (Wed) around 6:15.
ReplyDeleteDear Della: What absolutely wonderful reading here! Your blog is sheer poetry that compliments the astonishing pictures. I'm one of the WSP Pip Watchers, and I don't see much any more live and have to rely on you and Roger-Paw for my hawk information. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your effort.
ReplyDeleteI am writing from California. A slowly recovering Pip-addict. The NYT site turned me on to you, and I cannot thank you enough for the effort you put into this site. It is greatly appreciated. The photographs are enviable.
ReplyDeleteIf you decided to publish (self, probably) a book about this with these fabulous photographs, I will certainly purchase one! Many thanks again.
My grandmother, who for most of her life lived in a rural, remote European village, and had no formal education but was acutely observational of all things natural and agricultural, used to show and explain to me how birds could predict the weather. My father was a glassblower who made high-precision handcrafted scientific instruments like barometers (an art lost in today's computerized world) and taught me to be acutely aware of air pressure and its relationship to weather. Animals in general exist, as Henry Beston said, guided by extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. A night spent meditating in a forest can give us the smallest glimpse into what we are missing, the great immanent world that to human beings could be called "the Unseen". But at any rate, a bird's awareness of air pressure and wind and temperature and humidity must be like Gary Kasparov’s awareness of the chessboard: it approaches the mystical.
ReplyDeleteRick, wonderful comment. It is only from an anthropocentric perspective that humans get placed on top of a taxonomy of animals. Birds are surely above us, literally; and in the ways you describe, and in many other ways.
ReplyDeleteDella,
ReplyDeleteThank you and the fabulous photographers for this post! I was laughing out loud looking at the pictures and reading your commentary. So wonderful ... better than ANYTHING on TV. Are all your eyasses so amusing and so close? Remarkable! Thanks, GhentArt