Morningside Hawks

When you think you have a handle on hawk behavior, it's time to think again. Either that or the hawks are deliberately confusing you. In other words, I still have no idea what's really happening at the red-tail nest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Friday evening at the cathedral, there was no activity around the red-tailed hawk nest when I first passed by. I took a long walk east to check out a report of a possible 13th hawk nest in Manhattan (null result) and then came back to the cathedral about 7:45. A hawk was fussing about in the nest. A moment later, the other flew in.

The hawk who had been in the nest got up and jumped out.

Based on the missing wing feather, I think that was Norman.

But a half minute later, that hawk was back.

While I shifted to another position slightly closer to the nest, it seemed that again one hawk left, while the other settled down in the nest. But a minute later, the view was of one hawk sitting up on the side of the nest, generally keeping on things.

So maybe there are baby hawks up there. If so, I don't know how they survived some of the chilly days when the nest was unattended for anywhere up to an hour.