6/25, Quiet

With family in town, it's been tough getting over to the cathedral to check on the hawks. Apparently I missed a bunch of peregrine v. hawk action.

Wednesday evening I was there from before 7:00 until just past 8:00. Checked all around, with help from Susan, but no sign of either the fledglings or the parents.

Unfortunately, word comes on Thursday morning that an injured female red-tailed hawk fledgling was rescued on 114th St. on Tuesday morning and taken to the Animal Medical Center. Although the rescue location wasn't clear, it was apparently within a couple blocks of the cathedral, possibly near Morningside Ave.

The word is that the fledge is suffering from lead poisoning and a lame foot. Another hawkwatcher has said he's seen the two fledglings playing with construction material on the cathedral roof, so one might have consumed some lead there.

6/27, Solstice Hawks

Friday hawkwatching began around 6:30 with a trip back into the close at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Good choice, as I immediately found an adult hawk in the midst of dinner above the statue of St. Bartholomew.

Based on the eyes, I'd say it is papa Norman.

He finished up a couple minutes later and dropped the remainder of the meal over the edge. A second later I heard it go bang! on the aluminum catwalk on the chapel roof below. He wiped his beak.

And looked around for a minute or two. Actually, even while eating he had occasionally looked to the northeast, around the corner of the cathedral. Make a note of that.

Then he turned around.

And flew about 250 feet west, where he perched on the eastmost buttress of the nave.

Birds in the garden below immediately started twittering about the intruder, and two blue jays quickly flew up to greet him.

They tried some double-team dive-bombing...

But Norman was staying put.

Hmm, now why is that? Is there some particular reason Norman should be hanging around back here and taking abuse?

Silly me. I didn't think to ask that question. Instead, I exited the close and walked around to Morningside Drive to see if any of the other hawkwatchers were around. I found Lincoln and Susan keeping an eye on a fledgling perched on the scaffolding above St. Savior Chapel. This would explain why Norman was looking this way.

Apparently both parents had been there about 20-30 minutes earlier, when a food delivery was made.

A few minutes later, Lincoln spotted the other fledgling, perched atop the chimney on the south side of the transept.

D'oh! Norman flew right by that spot while I was watching, and his perch on the nave is less than 100 feet away.

Lincoln and I hied our way back around to the close. Sunset light was beginning to come on.

Unfortunately, the cathedral is now paying more attention to shooing visitors out the close at closing time, so the only half decent spot where we could watch the fledgling was out on the sidewalk along Amsterdam Ave.

After 20 minutes of that, I went back to Morningside Drive to check on the other fledgling. Still there. It did some hawk yoga.

And stayed put.

Back to Amsterdam. Norman still in the same spot. Can't quite see the fledgling.

Time to leave, but first take some pix of the West Front of the cathedral. Turns out it's less than 10 minutes to the moment of summer solstice.

And from down 112th St.

6/19, So Many Hawkwatchers...

...and just one hawk to watch.

Thursday's hawkwatching at the cathedral began about 6:00 when Bruce and I both arrived at the corner of Morningside and 113th. A few minutes later as I scanned the scaffolding for the source of a begging noise, there was some movement in the crenellations above the red-tailed hawk nest. Indeed, there's a fledgling up there.

But was it the source of the noise? It seemed happy to sit there and preen.

A half hour later, it became more active. It shifted over to the other side of the little turret, then it jumped over onto the scaffolding.

First landing on a short pipe a bit above the nest level.

But it seemed to be thinking about moving somewhere lower.

Did it want to go all the way down to the chapel roofs? Or just to the same level as the nest?

It reached a pipe at the nest level.

And there it stayed. The only thing now on its agenda seemed to be preening, and then some more preening.

Hawkwatchers gathered along Morningside Drive. The baby hawk stayed where it was.

Finally at 7:15, it was on the move again. It hop-flapped across the scaffolding 30 feet to the left and onto the turret above the statue of St. Peter. It looked over the south side of the turret but turned around and came back.

And then hopped onto the closest scaffolding pipe.

And there it stayed.

Down below the hawkwatcher count had reached eight, plus passers-by. Everyone gazed up. Everyone scanned the chapel roofs to see if they could spot the source of the occasional fledgling begging noises. Everyone scanned the rooftops and the trees to see if an adult red-tail was also keeping watch.

But it was just the one fledgling way up there, hiding in the scaffolding shadows. And finally hawkwatchers began to drift off.