... in the Barnes Museum gardens
... on bus shelter roofs. (The Franklin Institute is in the background)
... and strolling through the park in front of the Franklin Institutes's main entrance.
One of the eyasses spent a night in a bush outside the Central Library. Maybe it felt comforted by the proximity of a three-paned window - such a familiar backdrop.
The haggards - Mom and T2 - keep the eyasses in constant sight. Here's Mom on Tuesday, June 12, in her favorite tree top...
... and on a lamp post near the nest.
As the haggards hear plaintive food calls from the hungry eyasses, they encourage them to fly to the food drops by flying past them and leading them in. Here's T2 landing on the well-provisioned monument.
The eyasses quickly learn that they have to fly to get their food - no more take-out from the window! Gotta launch to that monument if you want to eat.
Unlike the sheltered ledge of the nest, it gets quite windy on the top of the monument, so they are learning to feel the wind and keep their balance.
Whenever they catch sight of a haggard, they watch intently.
When they get hungry, they call out plaintively, almost sounding like a seagull.
Mom caught them a mouse...
... and headed over to the monument...
... to drop it off.
The moment she lands, there is a total food frenzy...
.. and she gets the hell out of Dodge as fast as she can!
... then "mantled" over the mouse. Mantling or wing-covering of food is a well-known hawk behavior where the bird spreads its wings out over the food, bends over, and conceals the food from the direct vision of other hawks.
In its excitement at devouring the mouse, the eyass ripped off, then lost track of the mouse's head, which lay behind its tail. Its sharp-eyed - and hungry - sibling immediately saw a good food opportunity...
... and dove forward to grab it.
Another memorable food frenzy occurred when T2 brought a rabbit to the monument.
The oh-so-greedy eyass tried to swallow the entire rabbit head, much to the other hawk's apparent amazement.
Finally, when it had swallowed all but an ear...
... the eyass had to regurgitate and start over, and now its sibling is almost falling over in disgust!
When the eyass eventually stopped eating, its crop bulged out almost grotesquely.
But wait.... there's more! Quite a bit of the rabbit remained, and when the other eyass made a grab for it, the carcass somehow fell over the edge of the monument. Houston, we have a problem....
Hunger is the mother of invention, and this resourceful eyass figured out....eventually
... how to get the rabbit back on top of the monument...
... without dropping it
... or losing its balance.
Watching the eyasses eat is not for the faint of heart!
The big excitement on Tuesday was President Obama's visit to the Franklin Institute for a couple of fundraising events and dinner. It would have been interesting to navigate the Secret Service if we were still doing food drops! The eyasses, however, did not miss a beat even though their immediate environment was suddenly filled with a Presidential motorcade.
This is behind the wing that contains the Board Room, and the tent has the President's limousine backing in so that he could enter through a secured entrance. The Board Room windows are on the third floor on the end, and an eyass is sitting hidden in the corner of the window above the lamp post.
This shows the window above the tree where the eyass looked down on the motorcade. The nest is around the front in the window above the lit street light.
The motorcycle escort parked on the other side of Winter and 21st Streets.
The Presidential limousine waited at the main entrance of the Franklin Institute...
... and in the pouring rain, Mom watched to be sure her eyasses stayed safe. They probably have as good a security detail when she's on the job as does the President.
Wednesday, June 13
After the heavy rains of the previous day, this eyass found a patch of early morning sun in which to warm up ...
... much to the surprise and delight of pedestrians heading to work.
Soon, a line started to form, and those familiar with the saga of these hawks shared information with those who were not. We have encountered great good will, pride and interest in the Franklin hawks. They are city celebrities!
A similar scene took place on the steps of the Franklin Institute, where an eyass sat at the base of the far left column.
Despite the proximity of the people, the eyasses seemed quite unconcerned. This one started to preen, a sure sign of well-being and comfort...
... while this eyass was far more interested in what was happening inside the bush than in anything on the street.
As always, Mom watched her eyasses from afar, all the way over on the roof of the Franklin Institute. She's the tiny dot above and to the right of the eyass's head.
T2 was doing his part too, keeping close watch from the top of a spotlight.
Soon, it was time to eat, and Mom gathered everyone at the monument for a rat-snack.
With everyone fed, Mom retired to her lofty neon perch to keep watch from a distance.
Thursday, June 14
As if this year has not provided enough hawk drama already, we have a fledged eyass who likes to return to the nest to sleep. This has never happened before, and in the previous three years of the hawks at this nest, it has been several weeks before an eyass has returned to the nest.
Here it is flying in during the early evening.
... and settling in for the night
Here's how it appears from the street, with the magnificent chandelier in the Board Room faintly visible.
Early on Thursday, Joe Debold found this eyass waking up on another window ledge near to the nest. This one does not appear to be a morning hawk!
It started calling out for ledge service...
... and when that didn't work, it took off in dashing fashion...
... though it needed to get its undercarriage up a little more efficiently...
... and tucked...
... but it is definitely getting The Fierce Look organized...
... and proudly demonstrates perfect perch technique.
They are starting to show hunting behaviors. As this eyass watched small birds in the tree above it, its left talon was twitching and letting go of the perch...
... which almost proved disastrous.
Then it was time to start the piteous food calls again.
Another eyass flew in from the Library to the Franklin Institute roof...
... and then headed down to a friendly window ledge also in hopes of getting fed.
Continually calling out, it then headed for a tree...
... where the haggards had left some food.
Sometimes, a "prepared" meal shows up on the ground. This decapitated rat showed the marks from the powerful talons that killed it. The removal of the head makes it easier for an eyass to get inside the tough skin. Often, these ground drops were originally placed in a tree and then fell out.
... didn't quite measure up
Mom flew swiftly over to the Franklin Institute...
... and made a perfect landing
... and showed off her angel wings (thanks to Scott for that apt description!)
Eyass angel wings in a stiff breeze.
It's great to know that all three fledged eyasses are doing so well. Once again, I must express my deepest appreciation to all the photographers and screen capturers who so generously share their gorgeous images.
Thank you all so very much!
Posts
To all the image capturers and to YOU, Della as well.
ReplyDeleteWe owe all of you an enormous debt of gratitude for continuing your superb reportage. Fact filled, fascinating and amusing. Better than anything else in Philly!!
Love this today, as always, Thanks so very much.
Wonderful updates & pictures. Thank You !!
ReplyDeleteIt was heavenly to read this update. I cannot thank you enough for your splendid, funny and accurate descriptions, and of course without the photographs, the words would have less impact... so thanks to everyone involved. I hope you all decide to publish these photos and story. It is marvelous!
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for posting the marvelous pictures and your comments, Della. They are all greatly appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThank you to everyone involved with the precious Hawk family. The stories, pictures and descriptions of all babies are so interesting. Can't thank you enough. Can't wait for next year for another family.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy this story so much. You have a clever way of describing the beautiful pictures. I was crying with the fathers day story and then laughing with the eating the rabbit story. I hate it when the end comes to a story...so keep on! Thank you so much.
ReplyDeleteThe re-cap of the arrival of T2 still brings tears to my eyes - Mother Nature is amazing indeed in how she takes care of her own....I really think there's a wonderful children's ook in all of this - what a great story to tell school kids in teaching them about birds & nature. Could be used in conjunction with coverage of next year's brood.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the monument in relation to FI?
ReplyDeleteThe monuments are about a half block away as the hawk flies. They are on either side of the Ben Franklin Parkway center lanes, just north of the FI. The parkway goes off on an angle in relation to FI from NW to SE (or vice versa). If you were to look out the window (that had the inside camera) to the right, you could see them.
ReplyDeleteI just found a red feather on the ground, near the Cathedral at 17th and the Parkway. It's 8 inches long, it is red, with black markings at the end. What does this mean? I often see a red tail hawk perched on ledges at the Cathedral. On Thursday, June 21st, I thought the one that I saw perched, was a young one.
ReplyDeleteThat is probably a tail feather from one of the adult hawks. They do start to molt during the summer.
ReplyDeleteThank you Della.
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