Friday, July 1, 2016

Eat Prey Love

Christo and Dora's red-tailed hawk family has been quite active in Tompkins Square Park this summer.

After getting the flying down, the three hawk kids are now trying to learn to hunt then prepare their own meals without any parental assistance.

As Goggla notes in her latest hawk dispatch:

Christo had left a rat in a tree just a few feet away and the fledgling began eating it on a branch. They must learn everything, including how to hang onto their food while balancing on a branch. The fledglings haven't quite mastered this and have been dropping their food regularly.

So Christo swooped in and picked up the dropped meal, as these photos from Goggla show...





Per Goggla:

In the end, Christo took the rat to a bigger tree with a wider branch that made it easier for his kid to eat and not drop the food. I admired how Christo performed this task so patiently, keeping a close eye on his kid and making sure it ate enough.

Head on over to her website here for more photos and red-tailed hawk observations.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

An awesome tale, I mean tail!

Anonymous said...

All this bird action and those tweens are still completely non-plussed - bless their sweet little hearts!

Anonymous said...

Cool photos. Love how Laura catches everything and then methodically reports on their progress.

NOTORIOUS said...

Looking forward to seeing the fro-yo lesson!

Anonymous said...

Not to spoil it, but Dora told me that Christo in the running for "Dad of the Month" award by the Red Tail Association and Social Club.