Astoria Park has two fledglings in the park. Both looked like they were doing well. One was enjoying a branch of a tree, while the other was on a high diving board when I was there.
The foot up or foot out poses are quite common for Red-tailed Hawks. They aren’t a sign anything is wrong, they’re just shifting their weight from one foot to another.
The Triborough bridge is in the background of the last photograph.
We only saw two owls this evening. It was tough because of a late night visitor, who hunts very late for a Red-tailed Hawk.
When the New York Times had information about the Riverside Hawks on their blog, someone wrote that there was a nest on the Nurse’s Residence of Jacobi Medical Center. It was a nice day on Sunday, so I made the trip out to Jacobi.
I found a nest that looked like one from a previous year, but didn’t see any hawks. It’s possible the hawks are nesting on a different section of the building and I couldn’t see them. Anyone work at Jacobi, who can take a look down at the Nurse’s Residence?
After learning of the City College nest on Shepard Hall, I’ve been taking a look at it ever few weeks. It appears to have been unused.
It’s unclear if the pair had prepared the nest but used an alternate site or if the nest failed for some reason.
In any case here is a recent photo of the nest. If it had eyasses in the nest, there would certainly be dirty by now!
I got a message from Lincoln Karim that the Triborough Bridge pair was actually a trio, so I went out Saturday afternoon.
I got to see the eyasses and the mother. The mother had been sick and was restored to good health under the care of Bobby Horvath. You’ll see she’s banded.
Thanks to a text message from Lincoln Karim, I went out to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows, Queens and was able to find the new Red-tailed Hawk nest location. It is about minus 30 degrees of longitude from the old nest. Instead of being near Indonesia, it is now in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia.
I had received reports earlier in the season that the nest site was empty. The nest is in an I-beam, so it must be easy for the mother to hide while brooding and for the eyasses to hide when they are young.
There are at least two chicks in the nest. In the pictures that follow, the mother captures, eats and feeds a young pigeon to her eyasses. Readers beware.
