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.
It could be that something happened to the first clutch of eggs. If that was the case, the hawks could have mated again (as you mentioned previously) to have a second clutch this season.
ReplyDeleteWishing the uptown hawks well.