I made a brief visit to Fifth Avenue this afternoon and got to see Pale Male give his mate a break from her brooding duties.

Unlike the Washington Square Park pair, which love to show off in the early evening, on Fifth Avenue, it was very quiet tonight.

The new female sat on the nest and only got up to roll the eggs twice.  Pale Male didn’t visit the nest.  I guess the old man goes to bed early!

All kidding aside, this variation in behavior from nest to nest, and hawk to hawk is what makes hawk watching so much fun.  When you think you have Red-tailed Hawks figured out, you always find they is so much more to learn.  And what you already learned might not be true.

I went to Fifth Avenue this evening only to find the new female sitting on nest.  She rolled the eggs twice, but didn’t leave the nest nor did Pale Male visit.  I bet I had just missed a visit before I arrived.

The 5th Avenue pair are definitely incubating at this point.  Tonight, Pale Male was on the nest when I arrived, and the female returned after about twenty minutes.  Pale Male returned before dusk and removed a rat before settling down to roost.  (It didn’t appear that he eat the rat.)

While it doesn’t look like the new female at 5th Avenue has laid an egg quite yet, it sure looks like she’s about too.  She spent the day on the nest and made some exchanges with Pale Male.

The Fifth Avenue pair looked like a couple getting ready for spring.  Like last year, they are  going to have a late start.

Today, they copulated twice while I watched them and Pale Male visited the nest twice.