2/25, Spring Approaches

For all the talk about another three weeks to the start of spring, that's astronomical spring. Climatologists, i.e., the people at my office, will note its beginning in just a few days, on March 1.

And the signs that it's coming are in the air. I've noted in some of my recent posts about how chatty the small birds in Central Park's Ravine have been of late. Lincoln has been shooting more and more photos of His Paleness and his royal consort adding twigs to their nest, and finally caught the couple having a nooner atop the Oreo building last Sunday. The Trump Park hawks are also working on their nest, although they seem to have moved a couple blocks and we may have to start calling them the Carnegie Hall hawks.

But what of the Cathedral red-tailed hawks, Tristan and Isolde? Last weekend it looked like there were a few new twigs on their nest, but it wasn't until Jim posted a comment the next day that we had a report that one had been seen at the nest.

I still haven't seen Tristan or Isolde at the nest myself, but I can at least report that I've seen my own sign that spring is approaching the Cathedral nesting site. I've only made one hawk sighting in the vicinity of the Cathedral since last autumn, and that was an unidentified hawk perched on the statue of Gabriel on Jan. 15. Today, though, after a fruitless hour at the north end of Central Park, I was passing through Morningside Park at 5:20 on my way to 113th St. Hey, who's that in the tree at the bottom of the 116 Steps? Yay! It's Isolde!

Isolde took off 30 seconds later, heading north. But again, this is the first time I've seen her or Tristan over in Morningside Park in months, so the short viewing was more than sufficient.

Perhaps some pictures later, after the Oscars are over and I have time to decide which came out least crummy in the waning light. One or two of Isolde might come out, plus there's a bunch of the crowd of sparrows and cardinals who were going nuts in the Ravine.