It was a wonderfully quiet evening watching the two fledglings.  Both had been feed before I arrived and were very mellow.

It looks as though Pale Male and Lima are encouraging their offspring to begin hunting on their own.  Reports are the fledgling’s endless begging for food was being ignored by their parents today.  As I was leaving the park, one flew over to the Ramble.  A possible sign the youngster was taking the hint!

The Fifth Avenue fledglings continue to delight those who visit them.  At this point they are very, very easy to watch.  This afternoon and early evening they hung around in low branches and one of them had a rat for dinner.

They’re a perfect antidote for Pip watching downtown, where one has to be happy with one sighting a week!

Hawk watchers in the late afternoon and early evening in Central Park were able to see rats being consumed by both Fifth Avenue fledglings, the offspring of Pale Male and Lima.  The meals were eaten in trees, although one fledgling finished eating on the ground after dropping dinner.

The video from today is twenty minutes long and contains a great deal of footage of the meals being eaten.  Watch it only if you don’t mind seeing rodents being torn up and eaten. 

I’m facintated by the way rodents being eaten by hawks, since there seems to be an order in which Red-tailed Hawks eat their prey.  They consume the organs first, then the rest of the animal including the bones, and generally eat the tail last.  It seems they eat the most nutritious parts first, and that they need to eat the bones to get enough calcium.

After having been away for two weeks in Alaska, I finally was able to get to see the newly fledged Fifth Avenue youngsters.  Both look to be enjoying Cedar Hill, which is a few blocks north of the nest and one block west.

One had caught a young robin before I arrived, which may have been its first kill (or close to it).

For me it was exciting, since I started birding after the fertility problems at Fifth Avenue.  So these were the first Fifth Avenue youngsters I’ve ever seen!

I’ve been busy with the Washington Square fledge, so I haven’t been able to get to Fifth Avenue for awhile.  They’ve really matured since I last saw them.

As usually happens just before dusk, the mother fed them.