Friday, April 27, 2007

Park Ave. Peregrine Falcons: 24 April 2007

PF_ParkAve_h224p(20070328).jpg
320 Park Ave.
28-Mar-2007

These observations occured while heading back to work as I passed through the Park Ave. Peregrine Falcon territory. As soon as I turned the corner I spotted a falcon on 320 Park Ave. (‘Mutual of America Building’).

The image to the right was taken on March 28th and is the exact same perch I found this Peregrine on. It was facing south and keeping an eye on the nest building. This falcon was first spotted at 6:10pm EDT.

At 6:35pm I decided to move north from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where the President was just arriving, to my usual viewing spot at 52nd St. and Park Ave.

From here I spotted an ‘object’ in one of the openings on the north face of the ‘nest’ building. Since I didn't have binoculars I could only guess this was a Peregrine Falcon. It was the right size, the right color and had the right attitude.

Shortly after, around 7:00pm, the falcon on 320 Park Ave. headed directly for the ‘nest’ building and perched next to the object mentioned above. Both then hopped down to a place behind this perch. The object was a Peregrine Falcon after all.

Within a few minutes one was seen heading for a similar perch on 320 Park Ave. which was a bit closer to the ‘nest’ building.

After seeing both Peregrines perched at the same distance on 320 Park Ave. it became clear, based on size, that the 1st was the female and the 2nd was the male.

The male falcon was apparently perched off nest (if there is a nest) for at least 25 minutes from before 6:35pm until 7:00pm. Does this behavior lead to any conclusions about the possibility that there are eggs or young being tending to?

Thanks in advance.

3 Comments:

DotK said...

Wow, I worked at 320 Park when it was the ITT Building back in the 80's. Great to see peregrines there now.

Ben C. said...

Dot,

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a message.

I was wondering if you knew of any place in the area where the Peregrines could be observed from higher up (besides 30 Rockefeller Plaza).

The buildings I've seen them perch on besides the nest building are 320 Park Ave., the copper roof on the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, 350 Park Ave. which is called the Park Ave. Bank Building and the UBS Building at 299 Park Ave.

All the best.

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

High Power Rocketry said...

: )