Brooklyn’s cleaner environment has been great news for Marine Park’s raptors — but less so for the squirrels.
One frequent park goer has spotted many red-tailed hawks — aptly named for their distinct red tails — but his eyes went wide when he saw one swoop down to catch a squirrel for lunch two days in a row, said Marine Parker Thomas Smyth.
“I was just going for a walk in the park and I saw something out of the corner of my eye hit the ground. The bird flew over me a with a squirrel in his talons. Pretty cool,” Smyth said. “I’ve been there a thousand times and never seen anything like it before. Then two days in a row — catching squirrels. What are the chances this happening two days in a row?”
The local population of birds of prey such as hawks started declining in the 1950s and 60s due to widespread use of pesticides such as DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), which accumulated in the flesh of their prey and damaged their eggs, but a ban on DDT has led to a resurgence of raptors, said Rita McMahon, director of the Wild Bird Fund.
“The hawks generally are making a comeback throughout the city,” said McMahon. “We just about decimated them in the 1960s, and they slowly came back — hawks, falcons, osprey. We had DDT poisoning and their eggs would crack and they couldn’t have babies. All their populations plummeted.”
But as the environment rejuvenates itself, the bird populations are recovering too, and locals can enjoy their presence, said Parks Department ranger Erinn White, who taught children about birds of prey on Feb. 23.
“There were a lot of initiatives to clean up polluted areas in the late 1960s and early 1970s — but its takes nature time to recuperate. In the past few years that’s why people have been noticing the different birds of prey around,” said White. “It’s a good sign.”
Marine Park and the surrounding area is home to many birds of prey, including hawks, falcons, eagles, and owls. The most popular hawk in the city is the red-tailed hawk, which generally feasts on rodents such as squirrels, rats, and mice. They swoop down from trees to catch and kill their meal, before taking it back up into the tree, said White.
“They’ll eat rodents, mice, they’ll eat squirrels — that’s their main diet. They don’t swallow it whole. They use their beak to rip off pieces of meat and eat it. They leave the bones,” she said. “They’ll usually kill it first because if it is fighting, it can cause injury so they focus on killing it first and then eating it.”
Humans shouldn’t fear for themselves — or for their dogs — unless they weigh less than the hawk itself, like a tiny chihuahua. But a good rule of thumb in the wild is still to always stay a safe distance away, said White.
“It’s cool to look at, but make sure they keep their distance for safety. Use binoculars or cameras,” she said. “With any wild animal, the advice is just to respect them and keep a safe distance, even if it’s a squirrel.”
