Today, I arrived to see one of the young fledglings surrounded by people.  The fledglings aren’t scared by people, but that doesn’t mean we can surround them and gawk at them like they were in a zoo.

The two fledglings need to learn to be great hunters before they leave their parents.  If we trample the underbrush, whistle at them, and stand directly under them with our iPhone cameras, the fledglings are going to be spending their time worrying about us and we’ll have scared away their prey.

I guess New Yorkers are sadly, just happy to love these hawks to death.

Although my schedule has prevented from seeing the hawks in the morning, fellow hawk watchers report that both fledglings have discovered the Boat Basin dumpsters, Riverside Park’s Rat Machine! 
The hunting seems to take place in the late mornings.

On Friday afternoon, when I arrived, I could only find one fledgling but saw both of the parents.

Both fledglings are hunting successfully and have widened their range.  It makes finding and photographing them more difficult, but means they’re doing just fine.  I’m actually finding it easier to find the parents these days than the kids!

The whole family was together just north of the Boat Basin Café Monday evening, as a thunderstorm rolled through the city.  I only had about ten minutes with them before I needed to leave the park.

On Saturday, we got to see one of the fledglings hunt and display the skills it will need to survive on its own.  It isn’t independent just yet, but nice to know that its getting close, especially with the colder weather arriving.

On some other hawk blogs and forums, there has been discussion about these fledglings and their survival chances being from a second clutch.  Most of the arguments have been based on conjecture with no real data about second clutches.  Before we jump to conclusions, we might want to just take our time and observe these two fledglings and see what develops.

The fledglings crossed the highway on Friday.  They’re in the exact same trees and places as last year, just south of the 83rd Street playground.  This usually marks the period where they begin to do some hunting on their own, so it should be a fun few weeks.