Central Park has provided food and temporary housing for at least three visiting first-year red-tailed hawks and one visiting adult hawk, plus our regular residents. Since January 1, I've seen at least one hawk on each of my trips into the park, and sometimes I've seen as many as five. A few times the hawks have come to ground and provided a lot of entertainment.
First-year red-tailed hawk, south of Bethesda Fountain, Jan. 1, 2017
I've begun a new series in the Chasing the Hawks in Central Park grouping, called Hawky New Year! Part 1 covers Jan. 1 through Jan. 10, 2017.
The next in the series will be posted soon, covering Jan. 11-Jan. 12. Then we'll see how many more there will be in January.
The photos below are from Jan. 1-Jan. 10. Most of the hawks are first-year red-tails, but you'll see a photo of a young adult hawk here. This hawk seemed to like chasing the younger hawks out whenever the opportunity arose. I haven't seen this hawk for a while, so maybe some of the resident adults have chased him out.
The squirrel in the last photo was not amused by all the young hawks, and cried and cried from his home in the tree in the Ramble.
