I’m back from Norway and visited three Peregrine and Red-tailed Hawk nesting areas on the Upper West Side and around Columbia University on Friday.

Visits to the two Peregrine nesting areas, at 86th & West End Avenue and Riverside Church only resulted in seeing one adult Peregrine Falcon on Riverside Church. (I missed seeing the fledglings at the church when I was away.)

The Columbia College nest on John Jay had problems while I was away. One fledgling was on the ground and spend a day at the Wild Bird Fund before being returned, and one eyass passed away according to a Columbia University employee.

In New York City, we have nests at some sites that have difficulties due to Frounce in the pigeon populations and others that have problems with lead poisoning from the food chain.

The St. John the Divine nest has had serious problems with lead over the last few years. Given the problems this year at John Jay, I would suspect that these problems have carried over to the new location only a few blocks away from the Cathedral.

I did find the surviving fledgling on the northeast chimney of Hamilton Hall, who then flew to the roof of Kent Hall. It spent time calling for a parent, who given the direction the fledgling was looking at might have been on Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital.

One of the two eyasses has fledged at Columbia’s John Jay Hall. It was on the NE corner of Butler Library on the lower section of the roof that circles the building.

I couldn’t find the fledgling at first. I heard Bluejays calling from Amsterdam Avenue and went to see if the fledgling was east of the nest. On my way out a guard told me bird were calling from Mount Sinai Morningside. When I got out to the avenue, I found the parents on St. John the Divine being harassed by an American Kestrel. I looked some more but didn’t find the fledgling.

I went back to the nest, and heard mobbing coming from a Ginkgo Tree at the northeast corner of the Butler Library. Then all of a sudden, the fledgling appeared into view. It must have been on the roof all along. It looked to have found a good place to fledge!

I was near the nest so I swung by to see if it had fledged yet. It hadn’t as of Thursday morning. They eyasses were hiding under the camera. I suspect the nest is full of flies and they’re staying far from it is a good idea.

I visited the nest this morning and the eyasses looked like they were ready to fledge. They were also doing a good job at hiding from the web camera by standing directly under it!

In the center of the Columbia University campus, there is a Red-tailed Hawk nest on John Jay Residence Hall. It is unclear if the parents had been the St. John pair, or if they are a new pair.

The university has installed a camera and is streaming it to Youtube. Every week or so the URL has been changing due to technical glitches. Today’s URL is here.

They’ve now zoomed out the camera, but for a long while it was tightly focused on the nest, leaving the impression the eyasses had left the nest. But they’re just exploring the full length of the balcony.

They’re starting to explore the railings of the balcony and should be fledging soon.