On Saturday, after a severe spring rain storm on Friday, there were no sightings of the eyasses and very erratic behavior from the parents.

The parents spent a great deal of time off the nest and flying to nearby trees.  On at least two occasions the adult female went through the motions of feeding the young, but had not response from the nestlings.

This nest which was typical of a young couple’s first nest.  It was in a bad location, and on an unstable set of branches.  It always seemed like an accident waiting to happen.

I hope our failure to see the eyasses today was only due to them being exhausted from the tossing and turning in the wind and rain on Friday, but I feel that something much worse may have happened.

We should know more on Sunday.

Update: On Sunday, the mother removed a dead eyas from the nest.  The eyas will be sent to Ward Stone at the NYS DEC to determine the cause of death.  The other two eyasses are also presumed to have died as well.

I couldn’t stay long, so I missed seeing a feeding, but I did get to see all three eyasses at once.  I wasn’t imagining three!

The hawks had brought a large piece of brown paper to the nest.  At first it was being used as a new lining for the nest, then it blew around some.  Then one of the eyasses used it as a toy.  Eventually it became a sun shade, to block out the setting sun.

The eyasses are starting to loose some of their pure fluffy nature.  These photos show lots of early wing development.

The young ones are big enough to spend some time jumping up now.  Bring some binoculars and enjoy watching them.

I got a note and a photograph from a fellow hawk watcher, Sam Fisher, who took a photograph of three eyasses about 45 minutes after I left this evening.  So it looks like we do have three kids after all!

I may have counted the eyasses incorrectly at Riverside.  Both Saturday and Sunday, I only saw two eyasses on the nest.  I went back to my photographs from Thursday, and it might be possible that I mistook a wing for a head in a few of the photographs.  Until I see three heads for sure, I think it would be best if I revised my count to two, with a possible third.

In any case, the warm weather and sunlight encouraged the nestlings to be very active on Sunday.