Hawks, Saturday evening

A description of the daytime activities is necessary. Alpha Baby fledged to high up in a neighboring tree. Then Beta Baby flew to same tree, lower down. Within 30 minutes Alpha Baby soared over the highway and headed towards Albany. Mama also headed north. At about 2:30p.m. I headed back here to get some work done. But I was worried. Would Alpha Baby know to "come home." It's a big, dangerous world out there. At about 5:30 pm I headed back to the park. Alpha Baby was back in nest, dining on pigeon delivered by Mom. Beta Baby was in another tree watching the world. Then word came, Mama Hawk had been seen being attacked by two kestrals. She appeared and seemed fine. This was about 6p.m. Behavior changed. Mama, call her Super Mom, began circling space and screaming. It could only be interpreted as a territorial call, "My turf!" "No intruders welcome!" "Beat it!"

Beta Baby in tree. Alpha baby, in nest, was not visible.

Super Mom floated above nest area, flew over highway space, circled from Boat Basin up to about 85th screaming all the way. The screaming went on even when darkness fell.

I left when it began to drizzle, didn't want to ruin camera. It was grey, darker then it seems in pictures, misty. To get images with detail I was shooting 3 stops over-exposed.

Sunday: All fine. Everyone safe. No intruders. No screaming. I wanted to post these now because this behavior was so exceptional.

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