There was no activity at the cathedral red-tailed hawk nest when I first checked on it early this evening, but as I strolled past the pond in nearby Morningside Park, I was startled when a small hawk flew overhead.
A Cooper's hawk. Perhaps the same hawk that James watched being chased by peregrines in Manhattanville on Sunday.
The Coopie perched in a tree above the Morningside pond for 5-10 minutes and then moved north to a higher spot over the dog run. There it nervously preened, alternating between a stroke at its feathers and then a look around the skies. Apparently it knew it was in someone else's territory.
Well, one can only watch a bird preen for so long. It was time to leave, but i checked on the cathedral nest on the way out. Hmmm... that deeply shaded alcove seems just a slight bit paler than it ought to be.
Isolde!
She remained perched up there for the next 15 minutes until I gave up because of darkness. (The above photo was shot at 1600 ISO and then highlights brought out using Photoshop.) Sometimes she was a bit hunched over the interior of the nest; sometimes she was looking around at the the skies and rooftops. It reminded me much of when I saw her up there mid-March last year, pondering things and just a few days away from egg-laying.
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