A visit to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine early Thursday eve gave good looks at one nestling in the hawk nest. The young bird looks so big that a couple of us thought it could be two weeks old. That would match better (although not perfectly) with when I thought the second clutch of eggs were laid back in May.
In any event, the one nestling visible was lying high along the south side of the nest when I first arrived, but soon poked its head up and looked around.
Mama Madeleine, who had been lurking over on the hospital roof, flew up not long later, perching near the nest.
Soon enough she was down in the nest. She fussed about a bit but five minutes later, a feeding began.
After a few minutes Madeleine shifted to another position across the nest. She continued to feed the one nestling I could see but it's possible she was also feeding another, smaller one.
Eventually the child(ren) was fed and laid down for a nap. Madeleine had some morsels herself, and showed no inclination to leave right away.
Some nicer pictures and video of the scene can be seen on the Urban Hawks blog.
Nice!
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