I arrived at the cathedral red-tail site later than I would have liked on Tuesday, but the timing worked out well anyway. Initially, only one of the baby hawks was visible, probably Eldest, perched on the north side of the nest. A bit later it trundled to the other side of the nest and may have stepped on a sibling (Middle Child?), waking it up.
Eldest returned to its original spot and during the next 10 minutes stretched its wings a few times, but did not do any flapping.
About 7:00, papa Norman did a hit-and-run food delivery to the nest. Mama Isolde showed up a moment later — she'd been perched across the street on the hospital roof — and started a feeding.
Dinner lasted about 15 minutes. After Isolde left, the two visible babies remained active. Some wing stretches and neck craning. At one point as it seemed they were looking around the nest for any edible scraps, Youngest managed to sneak up where it too could look over the edge of the nest. All three baby red-tails were visible for a couple minutes.
When Isolde left the nest, she either hadn't gone too far, or else returned fairly quickly, as it turned out she was perched on a finial above the statue of St. Peter, perhaps 50 feet from the nest.
Back in the nest, Eldest had reclaimed its sport perched on the north side of the nest and Youngest was no longer visible. Everything was quiet for a while, but then there was some adult flying activity. Isolde took off and we found Norman was perched across 113th St. But he took off a moment later and as he flew past the cathedral we found that Isolde had merely shifted to the roof to perch on Gabriel's horn. Eldest got a little excite watching the activity and did flap a bit, likely to keep from falling off its perch. Then things quieted down again.
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