Red tailed hawks nesting on Manhattan's east side have been famous for many many years now (see Marie Winn's website or book). If you stop by the popular boat pond at Conservatory Water in Central Park, you can often find several people with spotting scopes and binoculars aimed at a nest who will let you check them out (for a fee) and even hook your camera up to one of the scopes and capture some priceless memories for yourself.
As I was walking through the parks eastern edge not far north of that spot today, I came upon this well equipped fellow photographer aiming his fabulous looking rig towards the rooftops across the street from there. I'm betting dollars to donuts that it's a nesting pair of hawks and their young he's hoping to get a magnificent closeup of. That or he's one hell of a voyeur.
