Rose & Vince: Back to School

Posted in Around the Garden, Wildlife on April 2 2012, by Matt Newman

It’s a rare day when you can step out under the trees of The New York Botanical Garden without the cry of a Red-tailed Hawk ringing overhead. We usually owe the pleasant racket to Rose and Vince, along with the many hatchlings they’ve reared since setting up shop in the Bronx years ago. And Pat Gonzalez–Member and Friend of the Garden–can point out that a solid number of the hawks hunting in the skies over our 250 acres are directly related to the celebrity pair.

But Rose and Vince aren’t loyalists–while the birds may hunt at the NYBG, they tend to waffle on which site they call home. In the past, the two have occasionally settled down in the upper reaches of the Garden’s architecture. Fordham University across the way has often been called home, as well.

Over the years they have raised their families at either landmark, gliding back and forth between Fordham’s Collins Hall and our own Library Building as the breeding season (and the vagaries of preference) demands. And of late they chose to stick around the college while snacking on squirrels and other critters here at the NYBG. But a brief flicker of hope cropped up when a pair believed to be Rose and Vince spent late winter fortifying a new nest along a ledge of the Library Building. With Pat Gonzalez’ camera lens providing the evidence, many of us here at the Garden waited with bated breath in hopes that the two might raise another batch of hatchlings within sight of our office windows.

It’s since become clear that the Library nest was, at best, a lark. Whether or not it was the celebrity duo, the hawks that began this nest have since left it alone for the time being, while it is confirmed that Rose and Vince are happily settling on their reliable perch at Fordham. Thanks to the university’s Rich Fleisher, who has been photographing the pair since as early as 2003, Pat was welcomed onto campus to take a few pictures and videos of her favorite raptors at Collins Hall.

Maybe next year the celebrity hawks will deign to set up at the NYBG again. Until then, all we can do is hope that their many children see what a prime piece of avian real estate this natural showplace can be.

Photo and video courtesy of Patricia Gonzalez.