Both Laura Goggin (Laura Goggin Photography) and Jean Shum saw two feeding at Tompkins Square Park today. I learned of the hatch and after the thunderstorms went down to have a look. I saw a rodent being delivered and a very short feeding. This is always a fun nest to watch and I look forward to many visits this year.
I ventured downtown to see what was up with the Washington Square and Tompkins Square Parks on Friday.
Washington Square Park was calm with one of the hawks on the Spanish Roof of the building on the Southwest corner of the park. Other than that the park was quiet. Reports are that the couple has been seen copulating for the last month. A male hawk was found dead over the last year a block or two south of the nest. This year’s male might not be Juno/Orion.
Tompkins Square Park was much more of what I would have expected. The male had just caught a pigeon when I arrived and called and called for his mate to come share it. However, she wasn’t that interested. After visiting a number of perches, he finally got her to share some of the bird. As I was leaving the park, the couple copulated. All looked good for brooding to start soon.
It looks like Tompkins Square Park lost an eyass sometime in the last few days. Laura Goggin broke the news on her blog on Friday. I was out of town over the weekend, but made it down to the park to confirm the bad news.
Sadly, it looks like Laura made the right call. Searches of nearby branches and trees yielded no early fledgling. I heard an American Robin making alarm calls, but the robin had found one of the parents on a western branch of the nest tree about 15 feet from the nest.
It seems fairly certain that Tompkins Square Park has two eyasses this year. They’re now big enough that it is unlikely a third could be hiding on the nest. The mother fed them while I visited them on Saturday afternoon. This will most likely be the first nest to fledge in Manhattan.
I made my first trip of the year down to Tompkins Square Park today. Christo and Amelia are doing well this year, with none of the “threesome” drama of last year. Their nest, in the same location as last year, may have been the earliest to hatch in Manhattan. Amelia was keeping the eyasses warm, with Christo making a visit and then Amelia feed the eyasses in the early afternoon. The eyasses are still a bit too little to see (and count) just yet.
This late in the year, I always question if the juvenile I’m watching near a nest site is from the nest or a migrating juvenile whose just passing through. This happens frequently in Central Park, but I saw it for the first time in Tompkins Square Park yesterday. The juvenile I saw was definitely not the surviving fledgling. It had very different tail feathers and different chest markings.
Regardless of who this hawk is, it was great to watch. It ended up having a fun interaction with two squirrels.
