St. John The Divine
The nest which is now above the statue of St. Peter about ten feet has three eyasses this year. With the construction over next door, and the nest bigger than last year, the parents seem back to a normal pattern this year.
Category: St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks
Surprise, Surprise
Thanks to some great detective work by Melody Andres, we now know that both the Grant’s Tomb (1) nest at 123rd Street and Riverside Drive and the 116th Street and Riverside Drive nest (2) are both active with two different pairs of hawks. These are close by to a Peregrine Falcon scrape (3) at Riverside Church, and close to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine nest site (4).
I had always thought Manhattan Hawk and Peregrine nests were like a checkerboard, with each taking different squares, but these three nests are so close together that it defies all that I had believed about nest positioning in the city.
Grant’s Tomb
116th Street and Riverside Drive
Two Weeks Old?
At the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, there was one visible eyass on the nest. It may have been two weeks old, which makes the fledge time somewhere in August.
It was hard to tell if there were other eyasses in the nest. The feeding behavior of the mother made it seem as though two were possible. We’ll just have to wait until they’re bigger!
Good News from St. John
The Morningside Hawks Blog has reported feeding activity up at St. John, so I checked it out this afternoon. The new nest location this year is one saint clockwise from previous years, above St. Peter. Previously, it was a little lower down on the shoulders of St. Andrew.
While I was there there were two feedings, and I saw a slice come out of the nest. The eyasses are too small to see just yet, but the feeding and the slice are enough to let us know there are youngsters.
This late hatch is most likely from a second clutch of eggs.
Central and Morningside Parks 2015
I’m looking forward to the 2015 Red-tailed Hawk nest hatches in Central and Morningside Parks. We have three confirmed nests in Central Park, a pair seen frequently in the NE section of the Central Park, and our Cathedral hawks have a new nest location exposed to the elements.
With any new season, I look forward to discovering new aspects of urban Red-tailed Hawk behavior.
Three Central Park nests is fantastic news this year. But one has to wonder about locations and why these three nests are so close together? Do these three Red-tailed hawk pairs benefit by having protected flanks from the other pairs? Does this outweigh any issues over food contention, etc.? Or did the new nest locations have nothing to do with the other nest locations? It will be interesting to see when other raptor species fly over the park, if the Red-tailed Hawks work together to escort them away. And which pair will tale over the Locust Grove.
The Beresford Apartment nest will have new fledglings who will have to cross Central Park West to end up in Central Park or maybe even Teddy Roosevelt Park. Which buildings will they perch on the first few weeks? The Museum of Natural History? Or like many Red-tails, will they try to get as high as possible the first week and end up back on the Beresford? Where will the parents take them to hunt? South to the calm lawn south of The Yard? Or up North?
How will the exposed nest do at the Cathedral of Saint John? Will it be as productive as St. Andrew had been?
And is there a forth pair nesting near the park? Almost all of the experienced hawk watchers in Central Park saw a pair of hawks all winter around the Conservatory Garden. In April, many of us have seen a single hawk in the park, who flies over to Madison Avenue between 100th to 106th. Is there a nest tucked away a block from the park or in the public housing east of Madison?
I’m looking forward to learning more about Red-tailed Hawks this season. How fantastic is it that one of the best places to study Red-tailed Hawks is in the middle of Big Apple! New York City truly is one hell of a town.
Hat Trick
Three nests had fledges today, Fifth Avenue, St. John the Divine and Washington Square. For Washington Square it was the second fledge.
This evening, I got to see the first and second Washington Square Park fledglings. The first fledgling had made it to the safety of the NYU Pless Hall roof. The second and newest fledgling was doing its best to hide in a small tree west of the Bocce Court.
Both fledglings looked healthy. (You know you’ve watching hawks to long when you study video for signs of Frounce.) The second fledgling seemed to be having some trouble getting to higher branches, but that’s not too unusual for a hawk’s first day off the nest.
