After missing the fledge, but seeing the first fledgling on Central Park South, I went up to the Wild West Playground nest to see how it was doing. When I arrived, the mother was just leaving the nest. The eyasses ate a bit, and then horsed around on the nest before branching high up into the tree, say 30 feet. I wasn’t expecting much to happen, so I started to pack up my equipment and head downtown.

But all of a sudden, one of the eyasses fledged around 7:10 pm to a tall tree to the north of the nest. The fledge itself was typical. Great flying but a poor landing. So, I unpacked my equipment and continued to photograph the hawks. Both parents eventually came in to keep watch, although neither visited the newly fledged hawk while I was there.

My visit to the nest started slow. I could only see two eyasses at first and wondered if one had fledged, but finally saw the third one. With some light rain falling, the fledglings became more active and the third one appeared and started eating. They’ve started branching, which is a sign they will fledge soon.

Then I heard some angry Blue Jays and found a parent on a street light. It went south, continuing to be harassed by the jays, and reappeared on another street light with a Brown Rat in its talons. The jays then dived bombed and dive bombed. Eventually, the hawk went to a tree north of the nest and then a hawk delivered the rat. I think it as the male hunting and the female making the delivery, but I’m not 100% sure.

The delivery was quick. When the eyasses are close to fledging, it’s common for the parents to just make deliveries and then let the eyasses eat on their own. I’m going away for a long weekend starting Thursday, so unless they fledge Tuesday or Wednesday, I suspect they’ll be gone by the time I return.

The late afternoon started quietly, but soon both parents arrived. The mother had a squirrel, which she helped the eyasses eat. The father watched from a nearby branch. He’s one of the most involved males I’ve seen in years.

The eyasses were relaxing when I visited the nest with the parents doing a “fly by” to check on them. They’re getting mighty grown up!

I arrived on Thursday afternoon to find three sleepy eyasses. With the colder weather they seemed happy to cuddle.

Red-tailed Hawks often raid American Robin nests, but today I saw my first robin nestling be delivered to a nest. The eyasses had a hard time dividing it up a the three of them kept stealing it from each other. Young hawks need to be able to feed themselves before they leave the nest, so a nestling robin made a good first do it yourself meal.

I saw similar behavior last year, at the Peregrine Falcon nest at 86th and West End. There the parents stopped feeding the young falcons, and simply dropped off House Sparrows to each youngster a few days before they were ready to fledge.