The Riverside hawks are back at the same location as last year, a building on West End Avenue.  The nest looks good.  While I was there today, the hawks were looking at the nest and seemed to be saying “its just right” and ready to go.  But they don’t look to be nesting just yet.

Only one eyass remains on the nest at West End Avenue/Riverside Drive.  It’s unclear if we had a death or a premature fledge.  Given the dates when it disappeared, a death is most likely.  We’ll know later in the season depending on how many fledglings end up in the park.

Update 6-15-2003: I received an email that one of the eyasses did die after two days of rain a few weeks ago. 

The Riverside Park hawks have eyasses that are old enough that they can easily be seen now.  It makes it much easier to watch the nest.  Tonight there were a number of visits by both parents, and a Northern Mockingbird harassed both of them. 

Last year, the location of the Riverside nest ended up being uncertain.  This year, it’s clear where it is located, on the west side of a West End Avenue building on a top floor fire escape.  (The neighborhood is a little worried that someone will disturb the nest given it’s location, so forgive me if I don’t give complete directions.)

The male visited twice and an eyass was seen very briefly (after 6:40 on the video).  Neighborhood hawk watchers have seen two heads pop up.  The eyass count is just a guess at this point. We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to have an accurate count.

These hawks are the pair that replaced the poisoned pair from the boat basin.

Every breeding season in New York City, we have lots of nests that work like clockwork.  This year, this seems to be Washington Square Park, Fort Washington Avenue, Inwood Hill Park, Fifth Avenue, CUNY Uptown and St. John seem to be in this category this year.  (I haven’t had a chance to see what’s up on Randall’s Island, but that I suspect is fine.)

Then we have mysteries or mishaps.  The Highbridge Park nest had problems, and a new one was built recently.   In Central Park three pairs of hawks, one at the south, one in the northwest and one in the northeast, are all trying to get established.

The most confusing though is Riverside Park.  After a few seasons of tragedies, last year two new hawks failed to make a nest although they tried on a number of fire escapes.  This season, two hawks have been reported in the 90’s of Riverside Park.  I went to see them today, but came away with more questions than answers.

I got to the new female hawk at Riverside.  She copulated with her mate while I was photographing.  While we’ve had a number of hawk deaths this season, her presence reminded me that the Red-tailed Hawk population of New York City continues to increase.