Essay: High above Bethpage’s PGA tourney, the circle of life
A red-tailed hawk with a chick that hatched near the ninth green of the Black Course at Bethpage State Park during the 2019 PGA Championship tournament, according to park naturalist Jim Jones. The photo was taken on May 15. Credit: Jim Jones
For a week, Bethpage State Park and its vaunted Black Course were the center of the golfing world for the PGA Championship. The park became a hive of humanity. Thousands of people, scores of temporary buildings and hundreds of vehicles were on the scene for one of the sport’s annual major tournaments.
Fans wanted to see their favorite players score birdies and eagles. I was as interested as any fan, but as the park naturalist, the birdies I focused on most were red-tailed hawks.
These large raptors are common on Long Island, and the fairways and forests of Bethpage are a great habitat for them. We have had as many as four nesting pairs in past breeding seasons.
The park has hosted large tournaments before, but not this early in the spring. Red-tailed hawks tolerate routine golfers, but they had never faced this crush of humanity at Bethpage while nesting, a stressful time under normal conditions.
We’ve had two active hawk nests this spring. One was on the Red Course, which was shut down and away from the action.
The other nest was located about 35 feet up in a tall oak just to the left of the Black Course’s ninth green. I was anxious to see how the birds would react. The female likes this spot. She had used this same nest last year; in fact, she and her mother before her had nested in this same area six times. However, I feared that with the tumult, the female might get so stressed that she would abandon her nest and eggs.
All I could do — along with a co-worker who is a state horticulturalist — was to monitor the nest every day.
A red-tailed hawk near the ninth green of the Black Course at Bethpage State Park during the 2019 PGA Championship tournament, according to park naturalist Jim Jones. The photo was taken on May 15. Credit: Jim Jones
In the early part of PGA week, when a few fans turned out to watch the pros practice, our female and her mate enjoyed the relative quiet. As fans strolled by, often directly below, the female stayed low with mostly just her beautifully burnished head showing. Fortunately, I was allowed to climb into the CBS Sports camera tower behind the ninth hole and set up a spotting scope to look right into the nest!
In the four days of tournament play, the Black Course became a mass of mostly moving humanity. But the only movements in the hawk nest were when the pair performed their changing of the guard — the mates taking turns incubating the eggs. It was wonderful to see raptors with such powerful and lethal feet gently step in and around the eggs to sit and warm them.
Even with thousands of people below, the hawks continued their parenting. On Friday, as the pair changed again, I saw the result of all their determined effort — a tiny downy-headed chick raised its head above the nest. Wonderful!
The tournament itself was a success. Brooks Koepka put on a brilliant show early, and then withstood his own struggles to win on Sunday. However, I salute a greater victory. Our red-tailed hawks went about their much more difficult business of survival and, in the midst of thousands of possible interruptions, brought two new hawks into the world. To my mind, they will always be the true champions of Bethpage State Park!
Reader Jim Jones lives in Bayville.
