4/22, Morningside Heights

My visits have been infrequent, but there appears to be no nesting activity at the red-tailed hawk nesting site at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, overlooking Morningside Park, this year. The only hawk sighting I have made there this month was a hawk circling over the cathedral for a minute or so and then flying south, about two weeks ago.

That said, there is a new red-tail nesting site on John Jay Hall on the Columbia University campus. A visit late Friday afternoon seems to have occurred during a feeding, as the female could be seen fussing about the nest for 10-15 minutes. One of the Columbia news sites indicates that as of Friday, two of three eggs had hatched. There was a live nestcam. (Search YouTube for "Columbia College Hawk Cam", but apparently there is no old footage to be seen there.)

The Columbia hawks may formerly have been cathedral hawks. A photo taken of the male at close quarters (the nest is literally just outside a dorm room window) shows dark eyes, suggesting that the hawk is more than just a couple years old. It has been suggested that he is Wyatt, who first appeared in the neighborhood in 2018, but that the female is new to the neighborhood.