Fledging season may be happening for Manhattan's red-tailed hawk nestlings, but at J. Hood Wright Park in Washington Heights, I found the three babies still in the nest. All three look big enough to leave, but the two youngest still have a fair amount of baby fuzz around the eyes, suggesting it could be another week for them. The oldest, though, might be ready to go by mid week.
Stepping out of the nearby subway station, I found one nestling in the usual spot in the corner of the nest keeping an eye on the goings-on below.
It was warm and sunny, and there was hardly any flapping. Just a few pardon-me flaps as the baby hawks stumbled about the nest sticks.
Yes, I see you.
One baby in the nest started trundling along the fire escape. Watching its progress, I found mama was in the back of the nest.
No idea what she was doing back there other than panting in the sun's heat.
The third baby was at the other end of the fire escape platform.
Nestling one and mama.
The wandering nestling started back toward the nest.
Oh, hey. The family is complete. Dad is here.
He looked about a moment and then hopped down where everybody else was at.
Ah, dad is delivering a pigeon. The kids must have all eaten recently, though, because no seemed too excited about the food.
And then, zip, dad departed.
Mom moved along the fire escape. What the heck is she up to?
And then back to the nest.
Well, it looks like there's not going to be much action around here until the day cools down a bit. Time for me to move on.
No comments:
Post a Comment