7/24, St. John the Divine

The solo nestling in the hawk nest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is getting closer to fledging time, and that means some occasional wing flapping. Friday afternoon, shortly he'd shared a meal with mama, I caught a couple quick bursts.

But of course, there's plenty of sky-watching, preening and napping going on.

It looks to me a week or more before the hawk nestling is ready to fledge. That he's too young is obviously marked by the amount of fuzz still on his head, but you can also see that his tail feathers are much too short. But perhaps some time the first week of August.

Manhattan 2015 Nest Checklist Update 4

It's mid July, and all but one of Manhattan's baby red-tailed hawks have fledged from their nests. Some have even begun to successfully hunt for their own meals, or at least some of their meals.

Following is a list of the thirteen (13!) nests in Manhattan that this blog learned of, one of which we only found out about at the start of July. Twelve had hatches, with one of them on the second try of the season. A total of 26 baby hawks were observed in the nests. Of these, 24 have apparently fledged, one should fledge in about two weeks, and one died in the nest

The last nest to be noted, and which did not appear on any of the earlier checklist updates was at Grant's Tomb.

This is our fourth and last nest checklist update of the 2015 season. Background info about the twelve nests originally noted can be read here. Three previous updates appeared here (1), here (2), and here (3).

	Location	Hatched	Fledged	Notes
1.	East Village/Ageloff Towers	3	3	First hatch about May 1. Two nestlings fledged June 20, third June 23.
2.	NYU/Washington Square	2	2	Both eggs hatched by April 27. Fledged June 14 and 15.
3.	Central Park Sheep Meadow	3	3	First hatch before May 9. First fledge June 23.
4.	Fifth Ave. at 74th St.	3	3	First hatch about April 26. Two fledged June 13, third June 16.
5.	CPW/Beresford Apts.	No	--	Failed.
6.	West End Ave./80s	1	0	One baby died about June 10 before fledging.
7.	St. John the Divine	1	--	First try failed. Egg in second clutch hatched about June 18-20; fledge expected first week of August.
8.	Grant's Tomb	1	1	Hatch about May 18-20. Fledged early or fell from nest July 2 and was taken to wildlife rehab.
9.	CCNY Shepard Hall	2	2?	Hatch about April 18-20. Nest empty June 7; both nestlings presumably fledged.
10.	Wright Park/Ft. Washington Ave.	3	3	Hatch about May 1-5. First fledge June 21/22; last about June 26.
11.	Gorman Park/Fairview Ave.	3	3	Hatch about April 22-24. All nestlings fledged between June 7 and 14.
12.	Highbridge Park/Swindler Cove	2	2?	Hatch date unknown but guesstimated May 1-5. Nest empty June 27; both nestlings presumably fledged.
13.	Inwood Hill Park	2	2	Hatch date unknown. Both nestlings reported fledged as of June 14.

7/17-7/18, St. John the Divine

The single baby hawk in the nest at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine is roughly four weeks old, so now has dark brown feathers covering his back and upper side of his wings. His head, though, is still fuzzy white and his breath is only just turning tawny.

Being a solo baby, he can sometimes be a little hard to find because he doesn't have to jostle with sibs for space and do a lot of excuse-me wing flapping. His preferred spot for perching seems to be toward the back of the nest, where he can't be seen from directly below the nest.

Friday and Saturday I had quick glimpses of the nestling. Early Friday evening he was peeking between the crenellations when I arrived.

But soon settled out of sight.

Mama Madeleine was also about, perched up atop the cathedral on Gabriel's horn, keeping an eye on things. I've seen her up there several times in the past two weeks, occasionally taking grief from the neighborhood kestrels.

Late Saturday afternoon I apparently arrived just about the time a feeding was ending. From the look of it, the hawk nestling might now be old enough to pull bits off of food off the meal himself.

Madeleine departed a minute later, heading north as she seems to do these days. The nestling poked around for another few minutes, providing a glimpse of growing feathers.

But then settled down at the back of the nest.