Robin chips and a new set of hearing aids revealed one of the cathedral red-tailed hawk fledglings quietly perched in a shady spot close to the 110th St. wall of Morningside Park early Monday evening.
His crop looked full, so he'd eaten this afternoon. And I say "he" meaning that the bird looked a bit small and so one could assume was a male.
No sign of the other two fledglings or the parents during the hour that I spent in the area.
Various issues kept me from checking on the cathedral red-tailed hawks for a week. Then when I did spend an hour and a half looking for them on Friday, I saw and heard nothing. Another hour at the cathedral and in Morningside Park on Sunday looked like it was going to be a bust, but just as I was exiting the area, I looked sideways and spotted one of the fledglings.
He was perched on the shady side of the nave, out of the sun on a very hot Sunday, and also away from the trees where those obnoxious robins might chirp-chirp at him.
At one brief moment it looked like he might be watching a parent fly by.
Although he might have just been panting and watching a jet. He was also scanning the parking lot below, as little as there is to see down there.
And unfortunately, after 10 minutes I had to leave for family dinner.
I headed up to Washington Heights on Saturday to check on the fire escape red-tail babies. I'd learned that only one was still in the nest Saturday a week ago and expected that both would be lurking about the treetops of J. Hood Wright Park, near the George Washington Bridge. Something I forgot to factor in beforehand was that playground noise would make listening for robin alarms and other noisy clues juste a bit difficult.
After making a pass around the park and returning close to where I originally entered, there were definite robin alarms coming from somewhere close by. Then a quick glimpse of a hawk flying away to the east. But the robins kept complaining. One of the fledglings was perched 60 or 70 feet above the handball court.
He was engaged in most of the gamut of fledgling activity. Staring at robins.
Scratching.
Staring at people and dogs below.
Preening.
And more staring at robins.
The only thing missing seemed to be eating.
There was no sign of the other fledgling despite a couple about tours around the park. Another sighting of one of the parents was made, but that was it.
