I got to see Pale Male make a visit to the nest and see Octavia take a stretch in the early evening tonight.  Their eggs should be hatching soon.

I made two visits to Fifth Avenue today.  Once in the morning, where things seemed to be like they had for the last few weeks with both hawks escorting out intruders and making brief visits to the nest.  But when I visited this evening, things had changed.  Octavia clearly had started brooding.  She was sitting tight on the nest for the first time this season!

Hawk watchers at Fifth Avenue got to see many nest visits, watch Pale Male chase off a juvenile Red-tail and share food with Octavia over the last few days. We all are looking forward to the 2019 nesting season.

I didn’t get much of a chance to watch Pale Male and Octavia that much this weekend.  On Saturday, I caught both of them on the Carlyle Hotel.  On Sunday, I found Pale Male in a tree by the Boathouse parking lot.

What I found strange this weekend was listening to multiple tour guides and folks claiming to be “locals” who seemed stuck in the 2004/2005 period.  They gave lectures to tourists about Pale Male and Lola, talked about celebrities who haven’t lived on Fifth Avenue for years, asked if the nest was “new” because they knew the old one had been taken down, and other nonsense. 

The entire time frame of the nest being taken down, including the protests, and the installation of the nest cradle lasted only a few weeks.  That was over fourteen years ago.  Folks, it’s time to put away your old copies of Marie Winn’s books and Frederic Lilien’s DVDs and catch up to the present!  A lot has happened in fourteen years!

Not much has changed over the last few days with Pale Male and Octavia.  The nest is being visited in the afternoons and both Octavia and Pale Male are spending time in the afternoon near the Met.