5/1, Around the Heights

On the first of May, the story at the two red-tailed hawk nests in Morningside Heights is quite different.

At Grant's Tomb, eggs have hatched and the two nestlings are roughly two weeks old. Old enough that on a nice evening, mama is willing to leave them snoozing on their own in the nest while she perches across the street.

Over at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, however, it appears that the hawks had an early nest failure and have "re-clutched". There the mama has been visible but barely so, her head poking up just a few inches above the nest as she broods a second clutch of eggs.

If things do go well for the cathedral nest on the re-try, it looks to be about another two weeks before we see signs of a hatch. So call it May 15.