Hawkma and former flame ride the wings of love

The latest in New York City hawk drama: Lola, one member of the red-tail hawk power couple, has flown the coop. Meanwhile Pale Male is canoodling with a younger chick. We trust Hawkma’s soaring above all the scandal. (NYPost)

Whoah! We beat Cornell?! Major Kudos to men’s B-ball. (Spec)

Apparently we’re “academically adrift.“ In a new study, social scientists prove that most college students learn virtually nothing—display no improvement “in critical thinking and complex reasoning”—after 2 years of school. Columbia Sociology Prof, Shamus Khan, responds ominously in GOOD Magazine: “College is a place where already advantaged youths spend four years enjoying themselves, and upon completion, they receive considerable rewards for having done almost nothing.” Read more…

Oh, you don’t want the vaccine?  We’ll take it.

Choppers landing on Mudd?  It’s just a movie.

Hawkma in Midtown?  If only.

You want space in Lerner?  Your tuition isn’t enough.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: It’s the Navy way!

Photo via NY Daily News

Hawkmadinebwog is no prophet, but either Odysseus is getting ready to slaughter Penelope’s suitors, or the red-tails are out for spring! Several people wrote in yesterday to tell us that a juvenile red-tail was hanging around Hamilton and Low until catching his meal and dropping feathers on the passers-by of College Walk.

Hawkmadinebwog is not skilled enough in field identification to tell individual red-tails apart, but it is easy enough to know whether a bird is a juvenile or an adult. These hawks do not get their red tail until their second year, so a brown, striped tail means it is a juvy. The hawk we have been calling “Hawkmadinejad” is an adult, most likely one of the mates of St. John’s. Hawkmadinebwog supports the continued use of the name Hawkmadinejad for any adult red-tail that dares to venture, like a controversial international speaker, onto our campus. But we should probably come up with another name for the babies. Baby Hawkma, perhaps?

Post your own suggestions in the comments, and see more pictures of the hawk and its meal after the jump.

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New Hawkmadinebwog contributor Courtney Douds takes us on a vicarious five-minute hike across campus, satisfying the urge for a walk in the woods without requiring anyone to get too cold.

Most photographs of Hawkmadinejad depict more than just one fascinating species. For the arboreal enthusiasts whose interests have thus far been ignored, here is a map of the large trees on campus, species by species.

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Bwog just received the following Shocking Report from Lecture Hop editor Pierce Stanley, who’s currently staked out in Butler:

“There is a pigeon in the reference room right now, flying around trying to get out and walking alongside the books on the walls. Everyone is sort of watching and laughing.”

Quickly! What should we name him? Stanley suggests Webster, “in honor of one of the most seminal reference books ever.”

And if you’re in Butler and you have a camera, snap a picture of this delightful avian distraction and send it to bwog@columbia.edu.

UPDATE 9:14 PM: Saakashtweety it is!

It’s time to get the story straight. Our Hero Hawkmadinejad, christened and courted with gads of sightings over the course of last school year, proved pervasive and rather uncanny. Commenters squinted at his tail feathers as they seemed to shift from brown to red and then to brown again – rather strange for a red-tailed hawk that only molts in its red retrices once. Something was up with our fair feathered friend.

So here we have it: the truth. From birder and blogger Bruce Yolton,

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With nearly the entire student body locked up now in finals or the library, you may have forgotten that we live in quite the dangerous city!  While tipster Alex Weinberg was able to stand on Ruggles in GTA IV, Columbia sociology professor turned underworld expert Sudhir Venkatesh noted in Slate that the first person shooter bears close resemblance to actual life on Chicago’s South Side, where he studied social trends in drug dealing, gang-leading and prostitution with Freakonomist Steven Levitt.  He also suggests improvements, including the option of being able to run over his book publishers. 

The city is not just killing urban youth, but also innocent red-tailed eyases!  Cityroom, after first reporting the existence of three hawk babies in our beloved Riverside Park, now tells us that it seems like they have died.  Only one corpse has been found, but a local birder said that cause of death is most likely poisonous food, which would have probably killed all three hawk chicks.  We are still not sure what relationship these 81^st Streeters have with Hawkmadinejad, but they are probably related to our Hero.

-JJV

A kindly woman was spotted feeding the birds outside Hamilton this afternoon. We hope they were potty trained.

The greatest narratives involve the pursuit of the unattainable. While Captain Ahab had Moby Dick, Bwog daily editor David Iscoe has a more humble aim: Befriend the turkey that lives in Morningside Park. Here, he recounts his foray into the wild.

“Hey, what kind of bird is that?”

A man pushing a hand-truck down Morningside Avenue calls through the fence, staring up at the large bird walking slowly down the hill. “That’s a turkey,” I reply.

“Whose bird is it?”

“Nobody’s. It lives in the park.”

“A turkey?”

A turkey indeed. A wild turkey lives in Morningside Park, and I decided to get to know her more intimately.

Not this kind of Wild Turkey

According to Brad Taylor and Jacquie Connors of Friends of Morningside Park (founded by Columbia alum Tom Kiel in 1981) surprise is a common reaction for first time turkey-spotters, but locals have come to know and love the bird. The Friends informed me, however, that the current resident may not actually be the same one who lived in the park before she went missing in 2006; in fact, they are convinced she’s a different one, and refer to the pre-turkey-knapping bird as “the first turkey.”

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Whether you’ve noticed or not (and whether you like them or not), there have been several pigeon nests on campus recently, baby pigeons included. Julia Kite gives the scoop on this campus bird trend — and includes cute pictures!

It’s understandable if you’ve never seen a baby pigeon. Formally known as “rock doves,” parents build their nests on small ledges, just as their wild ancestors constructed them in crevices on the cliffs of Europe. In the urban environment, this usually means a window ledge, underneath an air conditioner, or anywhere else they can find a stable platform and shelter from the elements.

When it comes to nest-building, pigeons don’t pay much attention to aesthetics. They typically throw a few dead pine needles and small twigs into a pile and let that suffice. Their own droppings, and later those of the chicks, bind this material together — not a pretty sight, and certainly not something you’d want to touch, so if you see a nest, leave it alone. An interesting fact is that pigeons almost always lay two eggs per clutch — never more. The male and female, who are closely bonded, will take turns sitting on the nest for about eighteen days.

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Bwog recieved this picture and a panicked message from a camera phone a few minutes ago:

“I WAS WALKING DOWN BROADWAY AND THIS LITTLE AGE [sic] WAS SITTING INJURED ON THE SIDEWALK SOMEONE FIND A BIRD EXPERT. There as to be someone here for enviro day.We put him near this Tree at bArnard”

Save the bird! Make a friend!

 

Anna Corke learns just what a birdbrain can do.

A Fairchild conference room, containing mostly graduate students and professors, stroked its collective chin as Dr. Sarah Woolley, a relaxed brunette dressed in brown and green, began her surprisingly understandable lecture, Natural Sound Processing in the Song Bird Brain, by showing photographs of a Bengalese finch, a song sparrow, and a zebra finch. First she played the three bird species’ songs, then explained that although these songs originate from closely related species, they are quite unique in structure and content. More importantly, a bird’s ability to sing these species-specific songs (think different human languages) depends on the bird’s auditory perception. Dr. Woolley’s interest is in how bird brains process sound, what the results show about avian singing ability, and what the broader neurological implications of these results might be.

Read more…