By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — Riverside Park's fatherless young hawks are thriving, but raptor lovers haven't forgotten their dead parent and plan to mark his passing with a candlelight vigil.
Hawk watcher Bruce Yolton, who writes the blog Urban Hawks, is calling on fans of the birds to hold a "polite protest" and vigil in honor of the recently deceased red-tailed hawk, and raptors who have died in the park before him.
"I think it is important to keep letting Riverside Park know our displeasure," wrote Yolton on his blog, where he suggested that bird lovers stand outside a June fundraiser for the park holding photos of dead hawks.
Tests showed that the male hawk, who died last month shortly after his two offspring hatched, was most likely killed by a poisioned a rat that he ate.
Though there's no proof, many think the rat had eaten poison laid out by the Parks Department.
The hawks prey on squirrels, pigeons, rats and other small animals in the park, but they also hunt outside its confines and have been spotted as far east as Broadway. It's possible the fallen hawk could have eaten a rat poisoned by a nearby building superintendent or homeowner.
Hawk watchers are particularly incensed by the papa hawk's death because it wasn't the first time rat poison killed a hawk in Riverside Park. In 2008, three baby hawks — called eyasses — died, though the toxins were never traced to a specific place.
In a heartbreaking display of maternal instinct, the mother hawk attempted to feed her dead babies, Yolton told DNAinfo. Eventually she dropped one of the dead bodies out of the nest. The other two were discovered lifeless inside the nest when it later fell to the ground.
The episode was horrifying to the legions of nature lovers who gather daily in the park to observe the raptor family. That's why they sounded the alarm last month when they discovered that the Parks Department placed rat poison near a Dumpster behind the Boat Basin Cafe, not far from the hawk family's nest.
New York City Audubon Executive Director Glenn Phillips said the threat posed by rat poison has been a source of concern for wild bird lovers for years, and it seems to have grown more acute recently.
"There have been a lot of high profile nest failures in recent years, and I wouldn't be surprised if it's related to the presence of bromadiolone," Phillips said. Bromadiolone is the active ingredient in the rodenticide Contrac, which the Parks Department uses.
New York City Audubon recommends that the Parks Department doesn't use the poison during the hawks' nesting season, which runs from March through September, Phillips said.
But he noted that homeowners and building superintendents near nesting areas may be unwittingly threatening the birds by using rat poison.
New York City Audubon is creating a flier it plans to circulate to remind residents and building managers that how they use rat poison could endanger their hawk neighbors.
"A lot of people are not thinking about it," Phillips said. "It's more ignorance and not antipathy. I don't think there's anyone in New York City who doesn't think it's wonderful that we have hawks in New York City."
Bird lovers aren't the only ones worried about rat poison. "Rat poison sprinkled all over city parks doesn't just kill hawks. It kills numerous house pets, too, although the owners don't always know it," wrote one commenter on a DNAinfo story about the hawks.
But Parks officials face a challenge. Rats are a public health hazard that generate frequent complaints from the public, and the popularity of the Boat Basin Cafe means a steady supply of rat-luring garbage.
After the male hawk's death, the Parks Department took steps to eliminate food waste in Riverside Park by cleaning up the Dumpster area behind the Boat Basin Cafe.
The department also said it would post signs reminding park-goers not to litter, and would increase the effectiveness of mechanical rat traps to lessen the need for poison.
