The first fledgling is off the nest at Sheep Meadow in Central Park. A trip from the nest to a fence and back to a nearby tree. While I was there, there was an eyass on the nest, a bird branching (exploring the limbs on the nest tree), a parent watching everyone, and the fledgling.  Somehow, the rain held off long enough for me to photograph all of them.

I was able to get some photographs before the rain came tonight.  I tired a Livestream broadcast as well, but the eyasses went to sleep as soon as I started.  The joys of trying to feed live!

For the first time this season, I left the Sheep Meadow nest feeling like I had gotten a great view of the eyasses, rather than fleeing glances.

The only sour note of the day was a gentleman who wanted to fly a small helicopter next to the nest.  This is the eight time within the last year, I’ve seen folks with model helicopters in the park.  The Park Regulations clearly ban them, (§1-05 Regulated Uses, r, 2) “No person shall engage in any toy or model aviation, kite-flying, model boating or model automobiling except at such times and at such places designated or maintained therefor.”, with Manhattan having no approved model aviation areas.

Now that small drones and helicopters with remote cameras are under $400, it would be good to see these restrictions made clearer by the Parks Department.  Beyond the obvious safety concerns for humans and the hawks, these new drones can be very noisy and are not appropriate for use in quiet zones like the Sheep Meadow.  I would encourage anyone who likes to write letters, to send a note to the Parks Commissioner and request that restriction on model aviation be made more prominent in the Parks Department FAQs, provide refresher training to all Park Enforcement Patrol officers and ask the Central Park Conservancy to improve the signage at the Sheep Meadow, Great Lawn and North Meadow so as to remind park patrons of the restrictions.

At Sheep Meadow, I was hoping for some easy views of the eyasses, but had no such luck.  I must have just missed a feeding and had sleepy, digesting eyasses in the nest.  I did have a few glimpses however.

While I was there the mother few off for a few minutes and was followed by a noisy Bluejay.  The male came in and got the Bluejay to follow him, so as to leave the female and the eyasses in peace.  Nice work Dad.

If I counted properly, we have three eyasses in the Sheep Meadow nest this year.  They were tough to see.  Their mother left unattended for a good period and then returned to a perch above them kept an eye on them for over an hour before returning to the nest.  She was also keeping an eye on the workers building a huge stage and sound systems for the AIDS Walk on Sunday.

I had visited the Sheep Meadow nest on Friday.  Except for the female being higher in the nest than normal, there was no sign of a hatch.  But today, after a visit by the male who seemed to be mesmerized by the contents of the nest, the female did a brief feeding.  It will be a few days before we can take “baby pictures”, but it’s great to see these hawks do well in their second year.

This year, the male has a strange tail feather.  While red in color it has stripes like a juvenile feather.  Something I’ve never seen before on a Red-tailed Hawk.