When I arrived a playful Red-tailed Hawk fledgling from the Pinetum nest was making lots of hunting attempts in Seneca Village before moving up to Summit Rock, and then moving on to the Diana Ross playground. It ate a Brown Rat and was joined by the other fledgling. Both of them entertained the children in the playground stopping on a little roof and a park bench. The two of them were next to each other for a brief time and both look great.

At any nest site, as the weeks progress the fledglings start to explore a larger and larger area. One of the Pinetum fledglings has started to use an area south of the nest. It’s using the fruit trees south of Sparrow Rock, the dense forest between Tanner’s Spring and Summit Rock and the trees around Winterdale Arch.

I caught up with the adult male and one of the Red-tailed Hawk fledglings on Tuesday afternoon. Both were about 200 yards south of the nest. The old fledgling is being more active lately, which is fun to watch, but makes it harder to find.

The older fledgling was given a Brown Rat by its father, but dropped it before I arrvied to watch it. Just after I arrived, it went to the ground and picked it up and then proceeded to eat it on three different branches in two trees. After watching both fledglings just perch after the rainstorm on Saturday, it was nice to watch one of them eat and fly around.

I caught up with the two Pinetum fledglings after the rainstorm on Saturday afternoon. One was in the nest tree, a few feet below the nest and best seen from the eastern paved path that parallels the Locust Grove chip path. The other was in the same tree it was in on Friday, in a small pine across from the 8404 light on the 85th Street onramp to the West Drive.

I found one of the fledglings on Friday afternoon about 100 yards west of the nest in a small pine tree along the 85th Street onramp to the West Drive. It stayed perched in the tree for over an hour, and across the drive an American Robin repeated a warning call during that whole time.