The first fledgling from Tompkins Square Park flew off around 10:45 a.m. on Monday.  It was relocated in an airshaft in the early evening across the street from the nest.  Red-tailed Hawks can get stuck in narrow airshafts, so Ranger Rob Mastrianni was called to relocate the bird to a tree in the park.  

Ranger Rob arrived, captured the fledgling, check its health and quickly got it relocated.  The fledgling soon explored the tree it was placed in, while the parents watched over it from a nearby tree.

I love it when a neighborhood gets together to enjoy a fledge and also watch out for a young bird’s health.  This happened today.  Residents of the Lower East Side should be proud of their neighboors who looked out for the welfare of an innocent young bird today.  They’re all real hawk watchers now!

The Tompkins Square Park nest still has three eyasses on the nest.  They should be leaving the nest sometime this week. This is the first year for the nest, so it will be interesting to see where the parents encourage the youngsters to fledge towards, building roofs or trees of the park.

One of the nice things about getting to know Red-tailed Hawks is to learn the variations between individuals.  In Red-tails, this is most evident in the role the father takes once the eyasses are born.  Some fathers just delivery food, while others help with preening and feeding the eyasses.

At Tompkins Square Park, the father is very involved with the eyasses care and spent a great deal of time grooming them Friday afternoon.  Hipster dad for the hipster neighborhood.

In these pictures, especially the last few, you’ll see the mother acting as a sun shade for the eyasses.  I can’t figure out how they fit under her at this point with the eyasses being so big.

The eyasses have grown up enough that if one is patient and waits for a feeding one can now get a very good view of them from the street.  I had a great time on Sunday watching the hawks.  Across the street from where I was watching was an afternoon first communion service at the local Roman Catholic parish.  Many of the church goers stopped by and watched the hawks.  I sometime get burnt out by lots of hawks questions, but this was fun group who really wanted to know about the hawks.

The eyasses are still too small to get good glimpses of yet, but the parents doing a great job hunting for them and feeding them. 

The Alphabet neighborhood is really excited to have this nest.  It’s been nice to see people be curious about their new guests.  I must have had 40 people ask me questions about the hawks today.

The Tompkins Square Park nest has three eyasses and I was able to catch a feeding by the mother, followed by a small feeding by the father in the early evening.  Happy Mother’s Day to the new parents.

If you’re trying to tell the adults apart, the male of this pair is (like most male hawks) is about a third smaller than the female.  This particular male also has a lighter colored head, and a much stronger black band on his red tail than his mate.