5/2, Checking in at the Cathedral

A gloomy day, with visibility down to a mile or so and misty air which made taking pictures a difficult task. But over to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine to see if there's any sign of a hatch at the red-tail nest.

Arrive about 5:25 and find Isolde is sitting up high in the nest. She's almost invisible and only a pair of binoculars picked her out.

She's looking around in all directions, but interestingly, she looks back and down into the nest a couple times.

That back corner always seemed to be where the nestlings were hiding last year before they got big enough and active enough to appear above the edge of the nest.

But has there been a hatch? I can't say. A couple minutes after I got there, Isolde hunkered back down in the nest and I didn't see her again during the rest of my visit to the corner.

BTW: Take a very close look at those first two photos again. There's a house sparrow perched on the pillar right around the corner from the nest. What's that about?

While I was checking the nest from the south side, Isolde's mate Norman snuck in and landed on the north entrance. When I walked back up to where I could see him, he was initially looking into the nest. Obviously not a food delivery, though, since Isolde never got up, either to eat or to feed any nestlings who might be up there. Looks like he's just checking in.

Then he looked around a bit.

He turned around and looked my way for a moment. A very odd posture, that, with his tail jammed up against the pillar behind him.

Then Norman took off and flew over to a spot on the scaffolding by the transept. I think it's the same projecting pipe I saw him on a couple weeks ago.

He was obviously casing the area for prey, ogling the chapel roofs, the trees alongside, the parking lot, the big piece of plastic flapping in the breeze on the eaves. He checks the entire area, his head bobbing all the while as he examined things from different angles.

After a bit more than ten minutes up there, Norman decided to make a strike. In what had to be worst swoop I've ever seen, he "dived" down into a tree alongside St. Ansgar Chapel. I put quotes around that because it was a slow motion dive, with wings spread and cupped to slow his descent just like a parachute. And whatever was in that tree, he missed.

After a burst of leaves from the treetop, Norman flew over into a nearby tree overhanging the parking lot and perched a minute. Then off again, across the street and up onto the facing at St. Luke's above the clock, turn around and up to one of the rooftop urns.

Perch there for a couple minutes, and ignore that starling who buzzes by twice.

And then off over the hospital rooftop to somewhere in the north.