6/2, St. John the Divine

The red-tailed hawk news from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine was bad and good today.

The bad news came in first, with a morning e-mail from the WINORR wildlife rehabbers that they had received a fledgling hawk picked up by NYPD around the corner of Manhattan Ave. and 109th St. (about 3-4 blocks from the nest site) sometime late yesterday. The hawkling could not stand, possibly paralyzed below the hips. They were waiting for the results of X-rays to find out how bad the injury is and whether there is any hope of trying to nurse the young hawk back to health.

The good news was that the third and last baby hawk from the cathedral nest has fledged. Another hawkwatcher reported seeing it in the nest in mid-afternoon, so fledging happened sometime between 3:00 and 7:00 today.

The first hawk sighting early Thursday evening was of a fledgling perched on the side of the crossing arch on the south side of the cathedral. It was hop-flapping its way up the blocks of the arch.

And in not very long made its way all the way to the top.

It didn't stay to admire the view, but soon turned around and started heading back the other way.

I headed around to the other side of the cathedral to check on the nest. It looked empty, but after 15 minutes I found another fledgling perched quietly on the roof of St. Luke's Hospital.

Looking uninclined to do much.

But with that time gap, maybe the first fledgling had flown across the street while I was looking around? No, back at the cathedral the first fledgling had made its way up to the crest of the copper roof above the chancel.

And shortly thereafter, mama arrived.

The fledge on the cathedral roof started working its way out toward mama.

Mostly walking but sometimes hop-flapping.

So close, but then mama flew away.