3/1, St. John the Divine

it's two months into the year, so about time for a post about the hawks at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, no? Conveniently enough, I made my first sighting in 2017 of the red-tail couple on Wednesday about 15 minutes before sunset, and they left no doubt that they were getting ready for nesting and egg-laying.

Madeleine was perched across 113th St. on one of the rooftops of St. Luke's hospital. Initially I was a little confused about who it was up there because I had forgotten how dark her coloring is compared to many of the other adult red-tailed hawks around Manhattan.

About five minutes later, Norman flew in from the east, and within two seconds, a mating commenced.

That lasted about 9-10 seconds.

Norman hopped off and perched along Madeleine for a bit. But then, 59 seconds after he arrived, he took off, heading southeast in the general direction of Central Park.

When will eggs be laid in the nest in the cathedral turret about St. Peter? No idea. Best guess is sometime between March 10 and 17, with the earlier date occurring if the relatively mild winter has prodded the hawks to start early.

2/22, Neighborhood Gossip

It's getting closer to egg-laying time at the city red-tailed hawk nests, and word is coming in about nest-building activities in progress all around town.

One second-hand report came in that hawks (plural) were adding sticks to the nest on the Grant's Tomb light tower this past Saturday. However, neighborhood hawkwatcher Jeff indicates that the female at Grant's Tomb does not have the coloring of last year's female. In fact her coloring seems more like that of last year's 116th St. female, and there is some belief that the 116th male died before either of his progeny was ready to fledge. So the hot gossip is that a widow and widower hawk who lived next door to each other last year may have linked up for the 2017 nesting season.

Meanwhile, the male hawk who has been hanging round the 110th-115th section of Riverside Park was found at dusk on Wednesday, as shown above and below, perched in a typical spot close to the park wall around 114th St. Apparently he'd fed well enough for the day, as he didn't seem to be hunting, nor did he seem all that bothered by a squirrel who kept approaching to investigate and/or chastise the enemy.

This 110s male hawk also seems to be a bachelor still. No one has reported spotting him in company with another hawk nor even a definite sighting of a different adult hawk in his little territory. It's getting late for finding a season's mate, so one wonders how much longer he'll lurk about the area.

Unfortunately, no reports received in the past month or more of hawk activity over on Morningside Drive. In all likelihood the cathedral hawks are around, but Morningside is a tougher locale to hawkwatch than is Riverside.

2/11, Riverside Park in the 110s

An hour-plus of looking for hawks on the Riverside side of Morningside Heights late Saturday afternoon looked to have been futile. The usually reliable "Mr. 116th St." didn't seem be around and the Grant's Tomb hawks were elsewhere. But as I was headed back south and toward home, the 116th St. bird put in an appearance.

Note: Although I call him Mr. 116th St., there's no way to be sure that he was the male of last year's 116th St. nest. Also, no one I've heard from has reporting seeing a "Mrs. 116th St" in the area.

He'd been perched by the Riverside Park wall at 112th St. But when I caught up to him, he had just flown across the road, into the strip between the main part of Riverside Drive and the neighborhood access road.

It didn't seem like much of a spot for hunting, but there was a small area of ground clear of snow. Perhaps he thought he'd catch a mouse sneaking out come sunset, which wasn't far away.

And there's the brief bit of "urban alpenglow" as the setting sun colors the apartment buildings.

Ten or 15 minutes go by, and he finally swoops at something on the ground but comes up with nothing.

Stared intently at the ground for a bit longer.

Flies over to another tree and perches briefly.

And then quietly disappears whilst I look the other way.