5/21, City College Shepard Hall

What seemed bad luck in finding the 1 train shut down north of 137th St. (scotching plans to visit the hawk nests way uptown) instead turned out for the best as it led me to visit the campus of CCNY. Brief observations of the nest at Shepard Hall in recent weekends had led me to think that there had been a nest failure, but Saturday afternoon I found a 4-week old baby red-tail perching in the nest.

Looking slightly miserable perhaps, but definitely there.

Meanwhile, mama was perched close by on the top of one of the tower's four ornate spires.

And not too many minutes later, papa came flying by.

Rising out of the treetops of St. Nicholas Park and circling higher.

And then swooping off towards the south end of the campus.

Casting about for a better look, I found a spot with a flatter angle but at twice the distance or more from the nest.

Mama still on the spire.

And baby sitting quietly in the nest.

Preening a little bit, possibly trying to nap, but no wing flapping.

A bit later, papa returned and alit on the Shepard Hall flagpole, taking over nest watching duty as mama took off and flew down toward Harlem.

6/7, Lazy Sunday at Uptown Nests

On a very fine Sunday afternoon, I made a circuit of three of upper Manhattan's red-tailed hawk nests. At two, I found the young hawks lazily enjoying the day, but at the third, a suggestion of Manhattan's first fledges of 2015.

First up, at J. Hood Wright Park, two of the nestlings were looking out from the fire escape nest, much like Statler and Waldorf in their balcony seats on the Muppet Show.

But where was baby number three? There's somebody else toward the back of the nest.

Hold it, though, feather color is wrong. That's an adult back there.

Indeed. Nestling number three was taking a nap and mama was providing some shade.

Not long later there was some fussing about back there, and the third nestling was briefly in view. But immediately one of the two up-front nestlings muscled in as it angled for its own shaded spot under mama's wings.

And mama lives but to serve.

It looked like the JHW Park hawks were going to continue relaxing under the sun, so I moved on north to another nest.

First view of the Gorman Park nest 15 blocks away revealed three hawks in view, two in the nest and one on the fire escape railing a few feet above.

But let's re-consider that look. Although initial appearance suggest two nestlings fussing around in the nest and an adult on the railing, a closer view says that's a baby hawk on the railing. And the coloring of one hawk in the nest says it's an adult.

Moments later, the adult in the nest popped up onto the railing. It's mama, perching alongside a child who has already learned the usefulness of railings.

Mama must have been sharing some food. She wiped her beak on the railing a couple times. Then she took off, headed toward Fort Tryon Park.

So that's two nestlings we've seen in the Gorman Park nest. Where's the third?

Wandering around on the far end of the fire escape. Look closer, over toward the left end. You can just see his head poking up where he's been peeking in an apartment window.

It seems exciting that one of the Gorman Park babies has managed to fly up onto the railing, but then it becomes apparent that it didn't. It's been using the fire escape stairs to go up and down, and so only needs to hop back and forth a foot or so.

It stretches a bit, then hops over onto the stair. Looks around a bit, then back over onto the railing.

A very short flight, just a hop. But still, it's already able to stick a landing.

Moving on and heading back south... Past visits had indicated that the baby hawks in the CCNY nest were the oldest in Manhattan and old enough to fledge this past week. Checking that nest at the end of the afternoon, I found it empty.

I looked around the St. Nicholas Terrace and the CCNY campus for a while looking for a fledgling, but no luck. The only hawk to be seen was one adult who perched on the Shepard Hall flagpole for a few minutes.

So it seems that both the CCNY baby red-tailed hawks fledged from the nest this past week. There was no sign of them below, but the terrain of St. Nicholas Park makes looking for fledglings very difficult.

5/23, Baby Hawks in Four Uptown Nests

Saturday afternoon I checked on four of the upper Manhattan red-tailed hawk nests and saw nestlings in each one. In a most pleasant surprise, I found one at the CCNY nest, which may be the first time I've ever actually seen a baby hawk at that location after years of looking.

The afternoon began with the Highbridge Park nest near Dyckman St. Martha was perched on the west side of the nest, where she could provide some shade to the babies within while she preened. From a viewpoint along the mountain bike trail, I was able to see one baby hawk through the nest twigs.

Looking closer, I could see that it was looking back.

But in that first photo, note how although the baby hawk is on one side of the nest, Martha appears to be fussing about on the other side. Indeed, there was a second baby hawk just barely visible on that side.

As I made my exit, Martha threw me some shade.

Up and over Fort George Hill and down into the Dyckman Valley area, I found the Gorman Park mama hawk perched at the very top of the fire escape above the nest, with all three of the baby hawks active one flight below.

You can see their wing feathers are growing in nicely, but their head feathers haven't really begun to show yet. They look to be about a month old and not ready to fledge for maybe another two weeks.

Time for some flapping.

Everybody look up at mama.

And one last look back at the Gorman Park nest as I made my way south along Broadway.

Up in Washington Heights proper, I reached the J. Hood Wright Park red-tail nest. There two of the babies were sitting high, while mama was doing something toward the back of the nest. Maybe feeding a third nestling, or perhaps herself.

Mama would fuss about, and then turn around. I kept wondering if she was going to fly out of the nest.

But she was staying put, even when one of the nestlings flapped his wings in her face.

Just keeping an eye on things.

Over there, too.

One baby stood up, where we could get a better look at each other.

And mama gave me a couple looks, too.

Although last weekend's visit suggest to the JHW Park nest suggested there were three babies up there, I wasn't able to get a clear look Saturday to confirm that there really are three. A couple pictures suggested that the third might be toward the back, but the mother was generally blocking the view of that part of the nest.

Onward and southward to check on one more nest before the shadows got too dark. Coming down St. Nick Ave. toward 141st St., I could see a hawk was sitting up in the nest at Shepard Hall at CCNY. It was big and brown and I initially assumed it was one of the adults.

But no, it was a baby hawk preening. Wing feathers thick and dark, a nice belly band, and the tawny breast typical of a young NYC red-tail. Its head was brown but a little light, showing that the head feathers haven't quite grown in yet.

Nevertheless, it was apparent that this baby hawk was older than the Gorman Park nestlings, which I had assumed were the first to hatch in Manhattan this year. The CCNY baby hawk looks like it could be more than five weeks old, which means that fledging time might be as soon as the end of this coming week.

My timing at CCNY had been lucky. A couple minutes after I first reached 142st St., the visible baby hawk laid down, and from along St. Nick Ave. it looked like the nest was empty.

3/28, Brooding Time Uptown

Saturday afternoon I took a long walk that passed by five of the red-tailed hawk nests north of Central Park, starting at Dyckman St. and working south to Cathedral Parkway. Four of the five nests definitely had females in them, probably all of them brooding eggs.

At the Highbridge Park/Swindler Cove hawk nest just below Dyckman St., I found the female, Martha, changing her brooding position and wiggling around to get everything back in place. But a few minutes later she suddenly flew away from the nest, leaving it untended. It turned out that there was interloper in the area and she was joining her mate, George, to chase it away. She was back in the nest in a couple minutes, getting out of and back into the nest so fast that neither time did I have a chance to take a decent picture.

Walking around Fort George Hill, I passed by the Gorman Park nest. While walking along Bennett Ave. a couple blocks away, I turned around to discover there was a hawk overhead.

A juvie.

And almost instantly, another hawk was chasing the juvie south. Successfully having chased the interloper out of the territory, the Gorman Park male returned north and headed into Fort Tryon Park. A few minutes later I was up the hill on Overlook Terrace, where I could see the Gorman Park female in the nest. Three eggs were confirmed there last Sunday.

Heading south along Ft. Washington Ave., next up was the fire escape nest overlooking J. Hood Wright Park. There it was plain to anyone who might look up that there was a hawk in the nest; the female's tail feathers were sticking way out. From another angle, it was possible to get a look at her looking back.

No sign of the Wright Park male red-tail in the area, but before I continued on, there was a look at a juvenile circling over Broadway and 176th. Conceivably it was the same juvie who had been chased away from the Gorman Park nest area.

Thirty blocks south, approaching 141st St. along St. Nicholas Ave., there was the CCNY male hawk perched atop the Presbyterian church downhill from the nest.

The female was also just visible in the nest, but the fading light made it tough to get a decent picture.

Sunset was still 25 minutes away, so quick walking might get me to St. John the Divine while there was still a bit of light. But even before reaching the south end of St. Nicholas Park, there was another hawk to see. A juvenile was circling high over St. Nick Ave., progressively working its way north. As it passed overhead, he only had a few blocks to go before a confrontation with the CCNY hawks was likely to happen.

Finally reaching Manhattan Ave. and 113th St. just past sunset, it seemed there was nothing to see at the hawk nest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Watching the area for another 7 or 8 minutes revealed some activity at the nest, but it had gotten too dark to tell if it was one of the hawks just paying a visit to the nest site, or if there was a switch-off on egg-tending.

5/23, CCNY/Shepard Hall

Last stop on Friday's four-nest tour was the red-tailed hawk nest at Shepard Hall on the CCNY campus. We're still trying to figure out how many baby hawks might be up there.

First glimpse from down at the corner of St. Nick and 141st St. Mama is fussing about the nest, but no baby hawks in sight.

And she settled down on the side of the nest, where she stayed for the next 45 minutes.

And nary a sign of a nestling.

Finally, as shadows lengthened, the male came soaring up to Shepard Hall from across the campus, landing up on a tower out of site. The female must have seen some sign of him, as she promptly got up and soared out, circling around Shepard Hall a couple times.

Then flew up to perch on the tower.

Where she only stayed for 15-20 seconds, before taking off again and circling round to the other side.

There she perched close to the male as sunset approached.