It was a quiet weekend for watching the cathedral hawks. I only spotted one fledgling, and that one just one time. Of course, the fledge(s) still at the cathedral and/or Morningside Park had plenty of time to be active when I wasn't around. Both parents were apparently also seen.
Friday
The start of the evening was wonderful weather-wise...
...but for watching hawks, Friday was a complete bust. At best I might have had a half-second glimpse of a hawk jumping off a finial in the cathedral close.
I scouted around for almost two hours, from 6:00 to 8:00. That included visiting the cathedral close three times, but only finding peacocks...
.. and checking the usual areas in the southern half of Morningside Park once or twice. No help came from any robins or catbirds. The only bird sighting of any note was a mallard duck hanging about the park pond, the first mallard I had seen there in over a month.
Saturday
Saturday I entered Morningside Park at the southeast corner entrance just after 7:00 p.m. and immediately spotted a hawk perched on Gabriel's horn atop the cathedral apse.
That appears to have been papa Tristan, although it was a bit hard to tell as he was preening most of the time and his belly feathers were fluffed up.
He stayed in place until 7:50, disappeared for a bit, and then re-appeared just after 8:00 and was still there the last time I checked.
It seemed like spotting Tristan was going to be it for Saturday. No complaints about that, as I got started late and the humidity didn't make for much of a fun walkabout anyway. But after I had last viewed Tristan atop the apse at 8:10, I was walking up Amsterdam and heard robins going bananas near the cathedral narthex tower. Sunset was rapidly approaching and it was a dim day anyway, but after a few minutes something large fluttered up high. A hawk was perched on the Amsterdam side of the tower scaffolding, probably about 110-120 feet up. Heavy Photoshopping of some truly terrible pictures revealed what looked like Isolde's dark shoulders. Given the time, it looked like she was trying to roost up there.
Sunday
Rainy day, so the plan was to just make a quick check on the park and cathedral on my way to Sunday dinner. At 6:15, entered Morningside Park from the southeast entrance again and had made about 1/3 a circuit about the baseball fields when I spotted a hawk. Someone was perched on the antenna structure atop the apartments at 306-8 West 112. Getting closer, a tawny breast was revealed. A fledgling!
Meanwhile, two robins giving her some lip. The fledge was fluffed up a bit, presumably trying to dry out, although the humidity and sprinkles probably weren't helping. So it was difficult to decide how thick her belly band was, although I'm inclined to say it was not Brownie. Assuming Eldest has made her escape to Central Park, then that suggests it was Youngest.
Whoever the fledgling was, she was still there when I last looked her way from over on Morningside Drive.
I also made a quick check in the close area, but there it was just the three peacocks, each perched on a fence or railing and very busily preening.
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