I arrived late on Sunday to find Lima sheltering her eyasses from the sun.  As the sun set, a cool breeze blew, and the action began.  Pale Male flew by the nest but didn’t land.  After a few minutes of waiting Lima, she left the nest.  Reports are she may have caught a squirrel a few blocks north of the nest.  While she was eating, Pale Male visited the nest and preened his young.  Lima then returned, Pale Male left and a feeding began.

With a spotting scope, you can easily see the eyasses during feedings.  Now is a great time to watch this nest in person!

When you have a large lens on a tripod, everyone wants to ask you questions for some reason.  Today, I was interrupted about fifty times while photographing the nest, despite wearing a N.Y.F.D. T-shirt which has the slogan “Keep Back 200 Feet” on it.  It amazes me how the sight of a working photographer, doesn’t make people think that they should be careful not to interrupt, but has them lose all impulse control and ask loudly “Who are you photographing?  Is it someone important?”

What was interesting was how the interrupting individuals, with only “NY Post” knowledge of the nest, kept trying to impress their friends and me with their knowledge (or in most cases their lack of knowledge) of the nest.  They would talk about celebrities who have moved away long ago, or would claim the nest had eagles or falcons.  It was amazing how many people just couldn’t take a few minutes to look through the spotting scopes that were set up and experience the nest first hand, and get an update of what’s happening this year.

However something wonderful made up for all of the interruptions on Saturday.  The old timers of the “hawk bench” were so excited to be observing new things again. (They were also remembering old times, departed friends and the old habits of Pale Male too.  But the new observations were what was making everyone happy.)

One of the joys of watching hawks in an urban area is how easy it is to make observations.  In a rural area, a hawk would never let you too close.  But in New York City, with hawks out in the open and acclimated to humans, we get to see their secrets.

Lima, who may be a first time mother, certainly isn’t Lola.  The post-cradle nest has eyasses for the first time.  The hatching time is weeks later than normal.  All of these changes are making the 2011 season something special.

One observation that was shared with me was how Lima doesn’t seem to be that thrilled with Pale Male hanging around the nest.  If he lingers too long on the north side of the nest, she sometimes comes over and gives him a little hip bump to move him along.  It doesn’t seem as though she’s communicating get lost, but more a message that she has things under control, damn it!  Great observation, members of the bench!

So, here’s some advice.  If you want to fit in at the “hawk bench”, don’t worry about what was.  Worry about what’s new.  Three out of four of the hawks are just that this year.

It does look like the number of eyasses this year is two.  They both can be seen eating together in the video.

Friday, I had a great afternoon watching the Fifth Avenue nest.  An eyass kept playing peak-a-boo, delighting the hawk bench, while it hide under its mother’s tail.

Since I started watching hawks after the last successful Fifth Avenue nest, I was thrilled to finally see a baby on the nest.  It was great to finally experience, what I had only read about in Red-tails in Love.

Two eyasses were seen today, and the talk of the bench was, “Is it two or three kids?”  We’ll know in a few days.

I arrived at the Fifth Avenue nest late this evening and only got to see the tail end of a feeding.  I understand lucky individuals got to see glimpses of an eyass, Wednesday and Thursday. I hope to shoot some images of a youngster this weekend.

I was hoping for a glimpse at a 5th Avenue eyass today, but they’re still too small.  I suspect this Memorial Day weekend will be a better time to visit.

I received some comments about the previous years nest failures.  It was suggested that in addition to the possibility of Lola being infertile over the last few years, it still could have been the cradle.  The hypothesis being that after all these years the nest was finally built up high enough to prevent drafts/heat loss from the metal cradle.  While this is a possibility, there have been a number of successful fire escape and air conditioner nests in the New York City area over the last few years.  Since most of these nests worked their first year, and were similar to the cradle, I would place my bets on Lola being the problem.  The nest isn’t that much higher than last year, and the biggest variable that changed was Lola being replaced by another mate.

In my post two days ago about signs that show a nest has hatched, I forgot about another way hawk watchers know there are eyasses on the nest.  The eyasses “slice”, or in layman’s terms defecate.  I recorded this twice on Sunday afternoon, so absolutely, positively the nest has hatched.

I started hawk watching after the Fifth Avenue nest had been taken down, so this will be my first real Fifth Avenue season. It will be fun to observe the nest that started serious hawk watching in New York City.

The hatch vindicates Marie Winn, the Park’s Department and NYC Audubon for their compromise with the co-op to put up the nest cradle.  When the nest failed to produce offspring, everyone’s conjecture was it was most likely the cradle, and possibly Pale Male’s advanced age, but very few suggested it might have been Lola.   So, to Marie Winn, the Park’s Department and NYC Audubon a very, belated thank you.