Monday and Tuesday evenings around the cathedral and Morningside Park, I only made one hawk sighting — a youngster atop a hospital chimney — although there was aural evidence on Tuesday that one of them was in the cathedral close. The lack was partially made up for with a kestrel briefly sighted atop 1 Morningside and a double-crested cormorant at the park pond.
Wednesday evening, things went a bit better, as I found two of this year's young red-tails practicing their attack technique in the close. I had barely spotted one of them when the second swooped in with a mock attack on its sibling.
Both decamped to a spot in the bushes where the cathedral staff had left a hose running, and there was a small but cool pool in which to dip one's feet and bottom feathers on a muggy evening.
After lurking about that area a bit longer...
They were up and running and swooping about the lawn, sometimes perching on the picket fence.
Over the next 15-20 minutes there were more attacks on stray leaves, nosy buttings-in to see what the other hawk had pounced on, and more swoops at each other. Then the duo both perched on the pulpit fence and chilled out for most of the rest of the evening, one preening and the other watching.
Much later they became active again. More swoops at each other, the best one coming when one forgot to pay attention to what its sibling was up to and almost got knocked off the fence. Both also made vain attempts at a squirrel and one made a try at a sparrow. The peacock, of course, they ignored.
One last sighting about 8:00
And both were lost to sight. And that blue jay finally shut up, too.
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