A Little Bigger
The eyasses continue to grow and now are popping up their heads rather regularly. It makes watching them a lot easier. This weekend should be a great time to visit the nest with warm weather and milder winds.
Category: Riverside Park Red-tailed Hawks
Three It Is, At Riverside
I got a glimpse of all three eyasses today. Two were in view and one head popped over to grab a bite to eat. So, we have a family of five now.
The mother was very protective of all three eyasses on a cool windy evening. She made sure they all stayed put as the nest swung from side to side.
2010 should be a fun hawk watching season, with Riverside and St. John’s in full swing in Manhattan.
Twins or Triplets?
With the Riverside nest hatched, the new question is how many eyasses are there? I was hoping for three, but haven’t seen more than two. With just glimpses of heads at feedings, the jury is still out.
Riverside Nest Hatches
All of the signs from yesterday’s visit turned out to be good clues. Today, I visited the nest around 5:45 and saw feedings at 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. The eyasses are very hard to see now, but should be more apparent by the weekend.
Based on feeding behavior, there are at least two eyasses. Again, we should know more in a few days if it is two or three.
This is the third nest that is known to have hatched in Manhattan this season. Highbridge Park and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine nests have already hatched.
The CCNY nest finally seems to be active this year. We’ll see what happens there soon.
Two other Manhattan nests, the Inwood Hill nest and the One Fifth Avenue nest both seem to be having problems. The Inwood Hill nest was partially destroyed in a storm earlier this spring. The parents have rebuilt it, but I haven’t heard news about them double clutching. The Washington Square pair seems to be having troubles establishing their nest on One Fifth Avenue. High winds were blowing off the twigs they would bring to the nest. I haven’t heard current news about their attempts for a few weeks.
Changes at Riverside
The Riverside Nest finally had some changes in nesting behavior today. It wasn’t the sure sign of a hatch, you would have by the sighting of an eyass or the motions of a first feeding, but there were positive signs. The mother left the nest unattended twice for about a minute each, and both parents spent time looking into the nest together.
We should know what’s happening for sure by the end of the week.
Babies Yet?
Manhattan’s hawk watchers are running all around the island hoping to see the first eyasses of spring. Although there are hopeful signs at the Cathedral, none have been sighted yet. I visited the Riverside, Cathedral and Fifth Avenue nests on Saturday.
