A fellow birder let me know that they had seen feeding behavior at the 93rd Street (Wild West Playground) Red-tailed Hawk on Friday. I went on Saturday in the rain and wasn’t able to see a feeding but was able to on Sunday. It’s great to have another set of young hawks in the park! We should be able to see the eyasses (chicks) in a week or so.

For those who don’t know much about how to view this nest, which is difficult to view without a scope, see my old post from last year.

I went by the nest today and she’s still sitting on the nest. The male made one brief visit. I still haven’t seen any egg rolling yet or an exchange between the female and the male, but everything is looking good.

Today, right after I arrived at the nest, the male appeared to join the female on the nest. He didn’t stay long, as he quickly took off to deal with an intruder. I still can’t figure out if we have eggs yet.

The adult female has been spending time in the Wild West Playground nest at 93rd and Central Park West. When she’s in the nest she’s barely visible. Red-tailed Hawk females often spend time on the nest before they’ve laid their eggs, so given that it’s early March, I don’t think she has eggs just yet. When we start to see exchanges between the male and the female, we’ll know for sure that eggs have been laid.

When I visited the nest on Sunday, the female was just barely visible on the nest except for two times when she got up to rearrange herself. The male visited with a half eaten pigeon, but the female didn’t get off the nest to eat it. He left quickly to dealt with an intruder over the tennis courts and the North Meadow.

I’ve received reports that the New York Athletic Club pair at Central Park South and Seventh Avenue is active again this year with the pair working on the nest in January and February.

The San Remo pair as still around, but given their track record we only have a small chance they’ll return to nesting in trees and will be successful breeding again.

With the death of Pale Male and the abandonment of the Cardinal Cooke/Museum of the City of New York Nests much of the eastern half of the park and the North Woods is available for new pairs to establish nests. I’m hoping to be surprised by reports of a new pair in the park this season.

I’ve had the hardest time catching up with the 93rd Street fledglings. I’ve seen the parents but rarely the fledglings. This is typical of hawk watching. As the fledglings become more accustomed to their surroundings and begin to learn to hunt on their own, their range increases. And for a few weeks, it was too hot to look for them!

I did find one of them high on a new building on the north side of 96th Street on the 19th of July.

The 93rd Street Red-tailed Hawk fledglings have moved north of the 96th Street Transverse, to the Recreation Center and the North Meadow in the last week. The Recreation Center is under construction and is fenced off, giving them a human and dog free playground after the construction crews have left.

On Wednesday evening, we had a bit of trouble finding the fledglings. We found one north of the Recreation Center. It ended up going all around the Recreation Center before exploring the western side of the North Meadow. This is the same area, Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl hunted in last summer, and like Flaco the hawk perched on a tractor.

One of the parents arrived with a Brown Rat, and a fledgling that looked to have already eaten joined them on a backstop. But the parent must of wanted to feed on of the other fledglings, and flew south.

On Thursday afternoon, all three of the fledglings were on the roof to the Recreation Center. They soon explored the trees and fences and as I was leaving one of the parents brought in a rodent.

I’m sad to report that at the 102nd/Riverside nest one of the fledglings was found on the ground, emaciated and covered in flies a few days ago. It was transported to the Wild Bird Fund, but passed away the next day.