Everyone in the cathedral hawk family was presented and accounted for Tuesday evening, with the children all getting fed, and some posing for pictures.
One or two of the fledges had spent much of the late afternoon perched atop a truck in the medical parking lot, posing for iPhone photos as many doctors and nurses left their office at the end of the day. By the time I arrived he or they were out of site. The first fledge I spotted was up on a window ledge at the Minturn Pavilion.
Same ledge as the third fledge had ended up on on Sunday, and I'm guessing it was even the same fledgling. He apparently had been fed a bit earlier but was still feeling a bit peckish. An occasional feather drifted down, and it wasn't from his preening.
Minutes later I saw a hawk swoop-plummet from the hospital down toward the cathedral transept. A fledgling or an adult? I found a fledgling perched on the west tin-roof of the transept, but there just above his head was Mr. X, the father.
Did someone order a pigeon?
After a moment of begging, poppa dropped down with the meal. The baby dug in.
Poppa immediately took off, quickly followed by momma Isolde, who had been perched up above on an eave near the cathedral roof line.
As it started to drizzle, I found the third fledge perched on the other side of the transept ruins. A full crop here.
Despite the rain picking up, it looked it was going to stay.
"Well, okay, maybe I'll move."
She switched to another beam, but it wasn't until the rain slacked off that she flew away. She alit on the roof of Boniface Chapel and looked ready to stay there the rest of the evening.
The fledge with dinner spent the rainfall chowing down, finishing up about the time that the rain stopped.
He wondered about the roof a bit.
Stared across the street at the sib on the hospital window ledge. Then settle down to preen.
Momma Isolde returned 20 minutes later, again perching up near the roof the cathedral nave. The fledge on the hospital window ledge got excited and tried to fly across 113th St. and up to join her. Not having the muscles yet, he reached the nave wall only about halfway up, skittered down about 50 ft and then disappeared out of sight to the west. I wondered if he ended up on the roof of the stonecutter's shed.
A bit later, the fledge on the tin roof began exploring. First down to check a trash bin near the cathedral door, then a nice flight of about 40 ft to land on a low fence. He stayed there for a bit, posing for pictures. As shadows lengthened, he began flap-walking the fence west.
Pause for thought.
And eventually down to the end of the fence and into the branches of a small tree.
Isolde kept an eye on the scene.
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