At least four and possibly all five members of the cathedral hawk family were in view on a very fine Friday evening, all found perching on the St. Luke's hospital roof or atop a hospital-owned building.
Immediately after and I and another hawkwatcher walked up to the corner of 113th St and Morningside Drive, Isolde landed on the chimney overhead but then immediately took off to the south.
It was another 20 minutes or more before another member of the family was found, but finally I spotted one fledgling perched on the roof of St. Luke's Travers Pavilion, overlooking 114th St. And 20 minutes after that another was found sneaking about the top of the Minturn Pavilion on 113th St.
Definitely different fledlings, as a quick check of the Travers Pavilion revealed the first fledgling still in the same spot, preening.
While angling about for a better view of that first fledgling, I decided there had to be another hawk way up at the top the hospital roof, somewhere near Norman's favorite chimney, as the neighborhood kestrels were in full attack mode. Sure enough, Norman was there, perched on a large air circulation unit where a railing would protect his head from the kestrels. Ten minutes later he tired of the assaults and shifted to the east end of the hospital, perching on a chimney on the Scrymser Pavilion.
Meanwhile, another fledgling was spotted on the north side of 114th St., atop a former apartment building now housing the hospital's outpatient services. Was it the third fledgling, or one of the first two we had seen? No way to tell.
As evening drifted to a close, Norman took off for parts unknown, leaving just the one fledgling still to be seen.
After a long spell of mildly unpleasant weather, let's hope the streak of the last two days keeps up.
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