Hammy's been here almost every day. There's no nesting behavior - I think my A/C is just an convenient perch for him to scan the area for prey. I know of at least one other nearby perch he uses, but that happens a lot less frequently.
Yesterday, he left a 2" x 1" something on the A/C. This double-picture shows the same deposit yesterday (left) and right (today), when it lost the feather in its cap. It's got lots more feathers, however..............the lump looks like a little tarball with feathers mixed in:
My A/C's been tarred and feathered!
I didn't know if it was an uneaten part of a bird or excrement, so I sent the shot to the always-knowledgeable Hugh Carola at the Hackensack Riverkeeper. His reply:
"I BELIEVE that it’s regurgitant (indigestible bits) that cannot pass through the bird’s system. Their excreta is like that of most other birds: lots of splashy white stuff (often referred to as 'whitewash'). There are a number of tails in and around the city: a nesting pair at Borg’s Woods, another along the river in Teaneck by FDU, plus plenty of immature/nonbreeders that feed on the abundant pigeon population.
Evidently your penthouse is THE place for this bird. You’re a lucky fella."I got up at 8 this morning and there he was on the A/C (Hammy - not Hugh). The sun was so bright reflecting off the river that I would have been highly visible to him - too visible to get close and take pictures. But I did notice something interesting.
The sun cast a strong shadow of him on the side a wooden dresser. Next to the window is a mirror that showed that shadow on the dresser, so I took a picture into the mirror of THAT:
I want to get more video, but I can't stand there for an hour or two or just let tape run, so I hooked up the camcorder that's mostly in my bedroom to a free-standing VCR (remember those?). But the VCR's other cables only let me move it so far, so it's half in my living room and half in my hallway.
The connector from the VCR barely reaches the camcorder. It's strung so tightly that I have to hurdle it to get into the hallway and duck under it to get to the camcorder in the bedroom.
The VCR is hooked up to another VCR that's with my TV, which is near my computer, so the end result is that I can see whatever the camcorder's aimed at (the bedroom window) on the TV while sitting at my computer in the living room, but without having to record anything.
I DID record him for about 12 minutes this morning before he flew off. If he comes back, I can hit the first VCR's remote from my computer and record the signal from the camcorder on the VCR instead of running through the obstacle course to record it on the camcorder and possibly spooking him when I trip on the connector.
It's a mess, but it works.
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The "pale male" of Hackensack.
