On the eastern wall of the western most pump house on the north side of the Central Park Reservoir is a Barn Swallow nest.  There are four young.  It’s a nice nest to watch, since it is fairly exposed.

This year has been disappointing for Red-tailed Hawks in southern Manhattan.  Although it most likely fledged, I can’t find the fledgling from the West End Avenue/72nd Street Nest.  This leaves us only with a few fledglings to watch above 110th Street.

Since it’s a hike to see the fledglings uptown, I’ve been spending time this last few weeks looking at other species that nest in the city.  There are lots of youngsters around.  These pictures are of and Eastern Kingbird family who were near the pier at Turtle Pond.  The snack was a dragonfly.

The Common Terns nesting on Governor’s Island have lots of chicks running around now.  Some big and some little, they are running all around the north end of Lima Pier.

The first adult tern in the video appears has a VHF NanoTag tracker.  While this season’s nano tags haven’t shown up in the Motus database, you can see the data from NYC Audubon’s 2016-2019 Semipalmated Sandpiper tags on the site.  Click on a tag with activity and then select “Show detections in: a map”.  While due to limitation in receiver station coverage you don’t get a full picture of the bird’s movement, you do see birds movements to the Canadian Maritimes, the Great Lakes, Hudson Bay, New England, and South America. You can see an animation of all the tag movements here. Select the play icon to start the animation. Great work by Ariel Lenske, Kaitlyn Parkins, and Susan Elbin.

The Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nest at Governors Island continues to delight me each time I visit.  On Tuesday, I arrived just in time to see an exchange between the parents, with the male being replaced by the female, who regurgitated food for the nestlings.  I usually can’t see what’s been delivered but today, one youngster got hold of a huge piece of crab.  It took a bit of effort to position it so it could be swallowed, while also preventing it from being stolen by a sibling.

A nearby Fish Crow nest has begun to fledge, with one of the first fledglings on a windowsill below the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nest.  Another young Fish Crow was branching in the nest tree.

On “The Hills” of Governors Island I found two Barn Swallow fledglings waiting to be fed by a parent.  It was great to see that the adult could feed them without perching.  Nearby was a Song Sparrow fledgling begging for food with a parent singing nearby.  These were just a few of the juveniles easily seen.  I saw young gulls, Common Terns, Yellow-crowned Night Herons, Fish Crows, Red-wing Blackbirds, European Starlings and American Robins on my brief visit to the island.

Thanks to the work of NYC Audubon and its partners, two piers on the Eastern shore of Governors Island have become a flourishing Common Tern nesting site.  Currently, there are lots of chicks running around on the piers, and if you’re patient you can watch them get fed.  If you’re interested in the terns, NYC Audubon with its partners is hosting the Sixth Annual “It’s Your Tern!” Festival on July 13th from Noon until 4 p.m. on the island.  Details are on the NYC Audubon website.  (If you take the ferry before noon on the weekends, it’s free.)