Yes, there is a pair of red-tailed hawks nesting at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine this year. Likely they are last year's birds, but until better photos are obtained, we'll just have to assume so. But the duo seem to be operating on a later schedule than other city red-tails, as I saw no evidence of nor heard any report of possible egg brooding until today. Other nests around Manhattan showed sign of first egg almost two weeks ago.
In any event, the cathedral hawks were both perched on Gabriel's horn around 6:15 this evening.
That's the female at right and the male at left.
Almost immediately the female disappeared while I was checking a camera setting. The male took off moments later, heading for Manhattan Valley and possibly Central Park.
Heading up Morningside Drive to a tiny spot which currently has a distant but unobstructed sightline on the nest, I found that the female was in the nest and sitting rather low.
The female has been seen in or near the nest several times in the past week, often for extended periods. But the prior cases all reported her as either being perched and looking around, or else just fussing with sticks. This is the first she has been noted as being down in the nest, suggesting that she may have laid her first egg.
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