After the edge of Hurricane Arthur passed through New York, I went down to Tompkins Square Park to see who I could find. I ended up seeing all of the fledgings and the two adults much to my delight.

The day after the final fledge of a nest, you realize how much harder it’s going to find the hawks.  Today, I was lucky to find two fledglings and the adult male this afternoon before the heat and humidity made me want to find some air conditioning!

One fledgling was on the school and the other was enjoying some shade on a tree in the park. The father came in with food and the fledgling in the shade made a quick flight to get lunch.

The last eyass on the nest at Tompkins Square Park finally left the nest Wednesday morning.  When I arrived at the park in the early evening, I found the second fledgling and then the adult male. 

Then it began to rain!  I got to see the father try and hunt in the rain and watch the second fledgling change fly to a new tree.  Then there was a break in the rain.

Three of us went looking for the new fledgling and the call of robins guided us to the middle of the block of 8th Street between Avenue A and B.  We found the third fledgling on the edge of a roof overlooking a community garden.  It looked very peaceful even as the rain started to come down hard.

At that point, knowing the youngster was safe, I went home to get into dry clothes!

The last eyass to fledge at Tompkins Square Park was joined by a sibling on the nest for about 45 minutes on Tuesday evening.

This generally doesn’t happen.  Once an eyass leaves the nest, it generally ignores it.  Experienced hawk watchers when asked if the fledglings will be returning to or sleeping on the nest usually say something like “The nest is really just a nursery, don’t expect the fledglings to return to it.”

But this evening after seeing a parent pick at food on the nest, a fledgling decided to check out the nest and look for food.  It also spent some time flapping and jumping, as if to say to its yet to fledge sibling, “here’s how it’s done”.

The eyass who hasn’t fledged, who has been doing a lot of jump flapping, was finally seen rapidly beating its wings and hovering tonight.  A good sign that it is mature enough to go when ever it decides to “leave home”.  The gap between the first and the last to fledge is now at eight days, a time period much larger anyone would have expected.

A week after the first fledgling left the Tompkins Square Park nest we still have a rather mature eyass on the nest.  I can’t believe it will be feldging in July!

Early evenings seems to be bringing all of the youngsters together near the nest for an evening feeding.  Tonight all of the young hawks were spaced about 100 feet from one another.

With one eyass still on the nest at Tompkins Square Park, we’re all getting a little impatient watching.  Its siblings left last Monday and Tuesday, so it’s been a surprise that this last one hasn’t gone yet.

At least tonight, when it’s parents and siblings were around the nest, and food was shown for a long time in a tree in the park, the eyass looked like it was interested in leaving the nest.  On past days, it would usually just take a nap!

The fledglings are getting very mobile and are exploring trees in the park now.  It’s getting harder and harder to find them!