I finally got to see a Fifth Avenue eyass twice tonight for a few seconds each time.  They should be easier to see as the days progress.  Now we just need to figure out how many there are.

It happens every year.  I know it takes a few days before the eyasses are big enough to see, but I always try too soon to see them.  I check every angle but it doesn’t help.  I just need to be patient.

The last thing I needed to see to be sure the Fifth Avenue nest had hatched I saw on Monday evening, the classic feeding of an eyass.  The mother pulls a piece of food off the prey and gently twists her head by 45-90 degrees to hand the food off to the eyass.  Seeing this behavior removed all doubts about the nest hatching for me.  Now the questions is how many eyasses is she feeding, two or three?

There is a good chance the Fifth Avenue nest has hatched.  Food was visible, both hawk let the nest be exposed for long periods of time, and there were lots of flies. Plus, Octavia may or may not have done a feeding based on who you asked.

When some other hawk observers asked me what I thought, I said I’d like to wait at least one more day before calling it for certain.  Things all looked right but why not wait a day to be sure.

I was hoping to see signs of Pale Male and Octavia’s nest hatching today.  But it looks like we’re still a few days away.  Octavia spent a great deal of time standing up off the eggs, but it was a warm sunny day, so this could just have been due to the weather.

While I was at the Fifth Avenue nest, which I thought would be the first nest to hatch in Manhattan, I got two emails saying it looked like a feeding was taking place at 116th and Riverside Drive.  So, it looks like we are starting to have eggs in the city hatch!