6/18, Fledglings over 113th St.

Two Cathedral red-tailed hawk fledglings spotted today, but they briefly hung out near each other.

5:41 - Arrive at Cathedral. No hawks can be seen perched along 113th St.

5:42 - One fledgling spotted on the rope tied around the base of the cross on St. Savior chapel.

5:53 - Still just the one fledgling spotted.

6:00 - An adult hawk is circling over Morningside Drive and the upper lawn of Morningside Park. After three circles, lands atop St. Luke's hospital.

Pix indicate it was Tristan.

6:01 - Fledgling still atop St. Savior chapel.

6:04 - Adult atop St. Luke's is perched with back to south, but Tristan is the one who likes to perch in that spot.

6:05 - Fledgling atop St. Savior is perking up. Almost looks ready to fly, but that may just be an "oops, I lost my balance".

6:07 - Fledgling takes off and heads for St. Luke's. Lands on the ledge around the edge of the roof, a few feet from the corner urn.

6:10 - Fledgling moves to inward side of fledge so that only her head is visible from time to time.

6:12 - All that activity overhead apparently caught the interest of another fledgling who had been hiding. I turn around to see one perched on the tall finial at the end of St. Asngar chapel. It strikes me that it's "small", suggesting that this is the last one born (the runt of the clutch) or is male, or both.

6:31 - After looking around for 20 minutes, Runt stands up, flails around for a few seconds, and then launches himself toward the hospital. He lands on corner urn just above sibling.

Drat, although I was perfectly placed and shot 10 pix of the sequence, I had just been monkeying around with camera settings, particularly the autofocus, and everything is just little too blurred.

But also note, the fledglings seem to have no trouble getting enough lift to ascend to the roof of St. Luke's. They're doing well in that part of learning to fly. But these have been just been straight line flights, and I haven't seen any attempts to bank or turn.

6:35 - Not sure when it happened but it looks like Tristan has disappeared from perch on hospital roof.

6:44 - Runt hops to another position on urn.

6:45 - First fledgling shifts position on ledge and can be seen moving around corner.

6:47 - Lose track of first fledgling on ledge halfway toward the balcony screens.

6:53 - Runt is flapping a little.

6:55 - Runt flies 25 feet over to another section of rooftop and out of sight.

7:00 - Exit.