3/9, Friday Hawkwatching

Two trips to the nest site today, but hardly any pictures and none worth the effort of posting.

First, in early afternoon: I checked the parakeet nest on West 103rd St. at 1:45 and found one of the residents busy on the renovations. Then walked up the Cathedral and found nothing going on. At about 2:00, while using the small field glasses to check rooftops, I barely spotted a hawk circling about above the Schomburg Plaza apartments more than a half mile to the east. It was only visible when it banked and exposed the full length of both wings to view.

After a minute or two, it seemed to head west or southwest, and I lost sight of it. Three or four minutes later a hawk came flying up Morningside Drive and zipped into the nest. As I was maneuvering along 113th St. for a good view of the nest, another hawk seemed to also come up Morningside Drive, but kept going and then dived into the park around 115th St. Turning back around to check the nest, no hawk was visible.

One hawk or two? Hard to say.

Headed over to the Cathedral at 5:00 and again no hawks initially in view. Twenty minutes later, after walking through the park up to 116th St. and then back down to 110th St., I discovered that one of the hawks had perched on the Wadleigh School tower. Whoever it was was happy with the spot, as he or she stayed there until after shadows fell across the location, sneaking off close to 5:50 while I was looking another direction. No nest activity was noticed at all during this 45-50 minutes.

Elsewhere... Lincoln reported late today on his website that Lola was beginning her first night of the season in the Fifth Ave. nest.