6/21, St. John the Divine

Friday evening was a complete bust in finding either of the two remaining red-tailed hawk fledglings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which was disconcerting because if one family member gets frounce, you have to monitor whether any of the others do too. But Saturday at almost the same time of day, I found both fledglings and also their mother within five minutes of walking onto the cathedral grounds.

First up was a fledgling on one of the south side roofs of the nave, about 100 feet up.

And down close to where the nave meets the crossing was mama Isolde.

Yes, she was looking downward for a reason, because somewhere right over my head, robins were alarming and someone was making feed-me screeches.

The other fledgling was in a tree right in front of the Cathedral House.

I'd like to get a better look at that fledgling up high — it's looking like there's a distinct difference in the darkness of the duo's belly bands.

Isolde took off, but despite some preening, the fledge in the tree kept begging.

Beg, beg, beg.

And some action. The fledge on the roof got up and flew toward the west end of the nave, perched for a moment and then turned around and headed back to the crossing. Meanwhile, the fledge in the tree hopped over to the nearby building.

Took off, circled around and came back to the same rooftop.

The cause of the excitement? Isolde had returned, bringing food for the fledge who was not begging.

Isolde plucked a few feathers out of the dead pigeon, then took off.

The fledge down low realized he'd lost out. Time to fly to the east end of the apse and sulk.

The fledge with the meal looked around for a while like he wasn't that hungry, but finally decided what the heck, a meal is a meal.

The hungry fledge eventually flew over to the crossing arch, but not too close to his sib.

After a while, both fledglings ended up near the top of the crossing of the arch. But the just fed fledge flew around a little bit, hopped down into the gap behind the arch several times, and otherwise acted frisky. The hungry fledge sat there, waiting for Isolde to come with more food.