July 4, 2014

7/3, St. John the Divine

On a muggy Thursday evening at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the juvenile red-tailed hawks got a hostile visit from one of the residents of the Riverside Church eyrie.

Things were quiet at 6:00, when one young hawk came flying around the Diocesan House, perched in a tree for a couple minutes, and then moved over to a Cathedral House chimney.

Cathedral Juvenile Hawk - 3767

Cathedral Juvenile Hawk - 3769

And belatedly I realized that the other young hawk was up atop 1 Morningside Drive.

Cathedral Juvenile Hawk - 3777

There they stayed for the next 10 or 15 minutes before the lower hawk took off to the west, and then the higher hawk did likewise. When they re-appeared, both were flying high up near the West Front of the cathedral.

Cathedral Juvenile Hawk - 3791

Cathedral Juvenile Hawk - 3793

It looked they were both going to perch on a nave spire about halfway along the cathedral, but then a third largish bird game zooming into the scene. Both hawks took off, one to the roof of 1 MSD and the other further along the cathedral. The new bird was diving at the latter and shrieking, and I belatedly realized that it was one of the peregrine falcons from Riverside.

Marauding Peregrine - 3803

A minute or so of diving at both hawks and then the falcon headed back toward home.

Whew! Glad he's gone.

Cathedral Juvenile Hawk - 3805

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