Since the female red-tailed hawk at St. John the Divine apparently started brooding about April 23, it seemed hatch date would come this week. But three checks on the nest Monday and Wednesday revealed it to be empty. The only hawk sighted was a smallish-sized bird perched on Gabriel's horn Monday evening, presumably the male of the pair.
Subsequently we heard that another hawkwatcher or two had not seen the female at the nest for possibly a couple weeks. The male has been seen around, and apparently also a year-old red-tail, possibly the same one that we observed in mid April.
There's been some debate about the recent female hawk history at St. John's, and not whether but how many have disappeared or died. Some photos last year suggested the female then was not Madeleine of 2015-2019, and one hawkwatcher theorized that brooding started late this year because the 2021 female was not the 2020 bird.
In any event, it looks like the St. John's nest has continued its relatively dismal history since the adult female (Isolde?) died of frounce in 2014 and since the nest site relocated to a roomier but weather-exposed spot in 2015.
