Four Evenings With Pale Male

Pale Male is spending some quiet time in Central Park now that his two babies have learned to hunt and are on their way out of the park (one baby, Speedo, has been active recently, we are happy to report).

Pale Male near Turtle Pond, August 11, 2016

I watched Pale Male for several hours on August 9, 10, 11 and 15, and put together a video showing his zen side. On August 10, I watched him near the 79th Street entrance to the park for two and a half hours. He say on a low branch, very quietly, until finally catching a small rat, eating it, and flying to the south side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Quiet Time With Pale Male shows Pale Male in the Ramble getting bombarded by jays and quietly calling out, perched on a low branch, hanging out near Turtle Pond before and during a rain storm, and perched high over the bridle path south of the Reservoir.

August 10, 2016, at the entrance to Central Park at 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. I watched Pale Male for two and a half hours as he sat on a low branch. Some of my favorite photos here.

These photos show Pale Male on August 11, 2016, near Turtle Pond.

Pale Male was near the feeders in the Ramble on August 9, getting squawked at by blue jays.

Pale Male and His Kids Find Dinner

There are three graphic videos in this posting. I watched Pale Male, our Central Park celebrity red-tailed hawk, dining on pigeon on June 30, after repeatedly calling to his two youngsters to "come 'n' get it!" On July 7, I saw one of his youngsters raiding a robins' nest, and on July 9, I saw a Pale Male youngster eating a starling.

On July 7, after I finished a day of background work in Queens, I return to Manhattan and got off the train at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue. I saw Woody, then walked north to Conservatory Pond to look for Pale Male's kids. I found one sitting above the tables at the outdoor cafe east of the water.

The young hawk looked around, spotted something, then flew near the Alice in Wonderland statue and perched briefly ...

... before returning just north of the cafe, where it attacked a robins' nest. The young hawk ate the robin nestlings, as I saw his father do last year so many times, as the hysterical robins cried and bombarded the predator to no avail.

I do not recommend this video to any who are upset by violence in nature. I almost couldn't watch, although I did take the video (which is very jumpy in spots). These hawks are so beautiful, but they can be brutal.

The bird then flew to a tree just south, where the youngster was joined by the sibling. The sibling had a crop the size of a cantaloupe, indicating the young hawk had also eaten very well. When I left, the two birds were perched, one atop the other, in the tree.

On July 9, a Pale Male kid ate starling. I am not sure whether the young hawk caught it, or if it was brought in by Pale Male. 

On June 30 around noon, Central Park's celebrity red-tailed hawk, Pale Male, flew over the 79th Street transverse with a pigeon and landed on a tree above Glade Arch. He called his two youngsters to have lunch. He kept calling as he plucked the pigeon and moved to another branch. After a quarter of an hour, he began to eat the pigeon, but kept calling softly to his fledglings. They never came, and Pale Male finished the meal.

I then left for the Yankees game, with some very striking video and photos.

Pale Male with pigeon, Glade Arch, June 30.

I did not add music to the video, and kept as much sound on as I could so you can hear the robins and blue jays screaming and hear the camera clicks. I removed the inane conversations I was hearing.