Sunday afternoon I checked on several red-tailed hawk nests in upper Manhattan. At three of them, I either saw nestlings or else sign that there were nestlings.
First up was the fire escape nest by J. Hood Wright Park in Washington Heights. There I apparently just missed a feeding as I found the mother perched on a nearby window railing.
Catching up on her preening.
Watching the park.
And the sidewalk below.
About 35 or 40 minutes later, as the clouds were clearing, she popped back into the nest to check on things.
She fussed around a bit and could be looking at a couple different spots in the nest. Apparently the babies were snoozing away, as she settled down beside them.
Farther north, we already knew the Gorman Park nest overlooking Fairview Ave. had seen its three eggs hatch, and probably two weeks earlier. There I could see little heads poking up, sometimes sitting up and looking around.
And not just sitting up, but standing up and flapping and stretching. A close look even revealed pin feathers.
Meanwhile, the Gorman Park parents were perched together across the valley on top of an apartment building on Ft. Washington Ave.
Walking around Fort George Hill from the west side to the north east, I came to the Highbridge Park nest near Dyckman St. and Tenth Ave. I might have arrived at the end of a feeding, as I could see a parent leaning into the nest and fussing about. In fact both parents were there, although the foliage is thick enough that I didn't realize the second was there until the male flew off.
The feeding apparently over, the mother remained perched on the side of the nest, checking the babie(s) within.
At one spot I could just pick out a fuzzy baby hawk head visible through a gap in the nest twigs. Possibly the mother was also eying another spot, so there may well be two nestlings up there.
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