Fledge watch at the Grant's Tomb red-tailed hawk nest has been in progress a few days, but as of Sunday evening, none of the kids has made the first jump. However, eldest is looking ready to go any time.
Note that he is perched on the railing above the nest.
Other hawk watchers report he has been up on the railing quite a bit over the weekend, and that earlier Sunday he was making short little flights from one end to the other.
The Washington Heights red-tail hawk nest across from J. Hood Wright Park seems to be running a little late this year. Even as young hawks begin to fledge from other Manhattan nests, the JHW nestlings still have some fuzz on their heads and look several days if not a week or more away from being ready to go.
But at least they are exercising their wing muscles a bit.
Although it was reported two weeks ago that there are again three hawks nestlings in the JHW nest, I was only able to get a look at two. A single photo did suggest at the presence of a third, but if it was there, it stayed down and didn't even budge as its sibs big-footed around the nest.
Although watching the skies and the sidewalk below was on the agenda, there was also a whole lot of preening going on. No surprise given the drizzly weather.
Elsewhere uptown, it looks like the Fairview Ave./Gorman Park nest has failed. Although a mama hawk was seen brooding there a couple times earlier this season, it was apparently empty when I passed by a few weeks ago. Checking on the site again on Sunday, it was indeed hawkless — neither adult nor nestling.
Circumstantial evidence accumulated last week indicating that there had been a hatch at the red-tailed hawk nest at St. John the Divine. The mother could be seen fussing around for extended periods, resting on the side of the nest rather than down in the bowl, etc. Then this past Sunday, Urban Hawks captured some video of a feeding in which the fuzzy head of a baby hawk was visible through the nest sticks.
But that video was shot with a long lens from the far side of Morningside Park, How long until a viewer — with binoculars perhaps — could stand below the nest and see the baby? Well, that was Thursday.
Mama Madeleine was fussing about a bit when I arrived, but then she settled down toward the back left of the nest.
This was looking like it could be dull, with any baby hawks probably sleeping off a meal. But then there were some brief glimpses of the top of a fuzzy head moving about.
Not much of a sighting, but it lasted a minute or two and it was definite.
The baby quieted down, and all there was to see was Madeleine watching the area.
A last look back at the nest from a couple blocks up the street revealed that papa Norman had swung by for a visit. It seemed he was looking down at something white and fuzzy, and I debated whether there was other to his right.
The baby hawk(s) will be getting bigger and stronger so sightings will get easier over the next week or two. Benchmarks to watch for will be sightings of them flapping their wings and the appearance of their first real feathers, as well as getting a reliable count of how many nestlings there are. As it seems first hint of a hatch was roughly May 17 or 18, then fledging could occur about Independence Day,
