12/26, Friday in the Heights

No sign of the possibly injured juvenile red-tailed hawk today. I did see a hawk in the general area, but probably not the same one. Between 3:30 and 4:00 a hawk was moving about over the rooftops along Broadway between 104th and 109th Sts., occasionally perching on a water tower or elsewhere out of sight. It seemed like someone patrolling his territory.

After 4:00 I started over toward the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and thought I might have seen the same hawk moving east along 110th St. Given subsequent sightings, quite possibly so.

As I arrived at the West Front of the cathedral, I saw one of the resident adult red-tails perched on "Norman's chimney" atop St. Luke's hospital, although it looked more like Isolde rather than Norman. A moment later she dove off, flew around the West Front and then hooked left and into the cathedral close. A minute later I found a red-tail perched on Gabriel's horn at the other end of the cathedral (see above pic). But it might not have been the same hawk because there was another perched 600 feet away on the roof of the Cathedral Parkway Towers on 110th St. They were facing opposite directions.

Sunset was approaching and presumably both hawks would soon go to roost. The hawk on 110th took off first, just a few minutes later. The one on Gabriel's horn stayed put until I had walked around to Morningside Drive.

Exactly at sunset (4:35) as I looked another direction, the hawk atop the cathedral quietly disappeared.

A little bit later, I found Isolde gone to roost in what seems to be her favorite tree near the south end of Morningside Park. Norman apparently decided to sleep elsewhere tonight.