Red-Tailed Hawk Baby Hatches; Owlets Leave Nest

Posted in Programs and Events, Wildlife on April 24 2009, by Plant Talk

Expect Warblers, Wood Ducks, More on this Weekend’s Bird Walks

Debbie Becker leads a free bird walk at the Garden every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., beginning at the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center. This weekend, she’ll also lead a walk on Sunday, same time and place.

Spring has sprung at NYBG!

The phoebe, spring’s harbinger, has been singing its wonderful namesake song throughout the forest. Wood thrush are chiming in along with white-throated sparrows, tufted titmice, and cardinals.

While some birds are singing to lure a mate, some of our larger predators are already proud parents. Our red-tailed hawks appear to have one baby in their nest, built on a cliff-like shelf of the Library building. Mom and pop can be seen flying in and out with tasty morsels to feed the nestling.

Our baby great horned owls fledged their nest in the Forest. Last Saturday, only one baby was left in the nest (see photo) with Dad watching over him like a hawk (or should I say owl). The other owlet was somewhere in the Forest with Mom, learning how to fly and watching her hunt. Earlier this week, the second baby also fledged and now birders are treated to a spectacular show of watching them flap their brand-new wings and hop from branch to branch.

Warblers are beginning to invade the Garden. Some birders I know save all their vacation days for the last week of April and first week of May to look for these gems. Warblers are small, colorful birds that migrate from as far south as South America to the far northern reaches of the United States and southern Canada. Escaping predators and feeding on newly hatched insects, they travel up the eastern coast in the tens of thousands every April and May to their breeding grounds. This is the only chance each year to see these long-distance travelers in their brilliant breeding plumage, and birding NYBG gives you every opportunity to observe them. Last Saturday’s walk yielded a palm warbler, pine warbler, and yellow-rumped warbler.

To learn more about the birds at the Botanical Garden…

In past years, cerulean, blackburnian, chestnut -sided, Cape May, Wilson’s, prothonotary, and Tennessee warblers have been spotted in the Garden. These are the more uncommon warblers. Because of NYBG’s diverse habitat the warblers arrive in droves and hop through the trees picking up spiders and insects under the newly formed leaves. Craning your neck upward and trying to see five-inch birds, often yellow in color, amid pale yellow and green leaves is quite challenging. But with a trained eye and knowledge of where each warbler likes to feed, one can count up to 35 different varieties of birds in one day.

The warblers are not the only spring visitors. In a couple of days the beautiful bright-orange-and-black orioles will return to the Garden. The male oriole is breathtaking to behold and the sound of his voice is challenged only by the wonderful sound of the wood thrush. The orioles build sock-like hanging nests over water or roadways. It is fun to watch the female, male, and a junior male (in training) construct their nests, which will be home to two or three babies.

Wood ducks have already started to nest in crags along the Bronx River, and there is a pair nesting right now on the smaller of the Twin Lakes. The female is well sequestered in a log guarded by the male. Wood ducks usually have 10 to 12 ducklings. Their main predators include snapping turtles, hawks, and herons. Mallards have been known to nest anywhere. A couple of years’ back a pair nested in the middle of the Watson Building parking lot.

Tree swallows, rough-winged swallows, grackles, red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, robins, eastern kingbirds, cedar waxwings, and so many more birds will be nesting in NYBG in the next few weeks. This weekend, because of the spring migration and in celebration of Earth Day earlier in the week, I will lead bird walks on both Saturday and Sunday, which also happens to be John James Audubon’s birthday. Bring your binoculars or borrow a pair for free at the Visitor’s Center, and meet us at the Reflecting Pool at 11 a.m. to look for spring migrants and to watch the baby great horned owls go for flying lessons. It will be a fun day for all!

Check out all of Saturday’s programming

Check out all of Sunday’s programming