I was in Connecticut when all the action happened. Stella Hamilton reports that this afternoon around 4:45 and then again at 5:30 p.m., fledges occurred at St. John the Divine. This empties the nest.
When I arrived late in the evening, one fledgling was high in a London Plane tree on the east side of Morningside Drive and the other was in a low branch in a tree 150 feet into the Morningside Park.
I got to watch two delightful eyasses and their mother on Saturday afternoon. One of the eyasses lazily stayed down during most of my visit in the left hand corner, while its sibling was very active. All three did lots of panting on a 90 degree plus day.
The evening started slow with the eyasses asleep, and no one in sight. Then an American Kestrel was heard, who dove repeatedly at one of the parents. Afterwards, there was one active eyas in view before I needed to take off for the evening.
St. John the Divine nest is much more active. While it took hours of waiting earlier this month to see a glimpse of anything, it is now common to see at least one eyass when you visit. It makes watching them a lot more enjoyable. If you’re in the neighborhood, take a detour and visit them.
This season has had its problems up at St. John the Divine. The male of the pair died and was replaced by a younger hawk, and there has been repair work on the roof right by the nest.
Unlike many of the other New York City nests, we can’t see the eyasses until they are about two weeks old due to the height of the nest. So, with a new father and construction, there were lots of worries that we hadn’t seen anything yet.
So, it was with great joy that the eyasses were finally sighted over the last few days by Robert and Lincoln.
I had gone up on Thursday and didn’t see them but was rewarded on Saturday morning. There appear to be two eyasses.
The new male has settled right in.
