Hop, Skip and a Jump
The Washington Square Park eyasses are enjoying their ledge and are doing lots of jump flapping. It’s fun to watch and we should see them off the nest in a week or so.
Category: Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks
Washington Square Park
The eyasses at Washington Square Park still have a lot of growing to do, but they’re sure looking older. Their orange bibs are coming in and they’re getting closer to their mother’s height. They’ve even started to pick at food a little bit.
Washington Square Park
The eyasses are starting to lose their white feathers. It’s amazing how fast they grow. From a hatchling to a nearly full grown bird in 45 days. It was a quiet evening with the parents taking a long break on the cross. One of eyasses ventured a long way out on the window ledge. Other than that not much happened while I was observing.
Getting Gray
The Washington Square Park eyasses are getting greyer and bigger. It’s great to see real signs they are growing up. I love them at this stage!
Three Nest Day
In the morning, I visited Randall’s Island nest. I couldn’t see any sign of hawks, but if they’ve gone back to the old nest, the female can hide fairly well. There’s also a good chance that the pair moved, given the Peregrine Falcon nest nearby.
I then went to Tompkins Square Park, which is still a few days from hatching. Both hawks there looked healthy. Locals estimate the hatch date to be May 10th.
Then it was off to Washington Square to see how things were going. As usual, they continue to grow bigger and bigger. They can stand briefly and feather shafts are visable on their wings.
Getting Bigger At Washington Square Park
The eyasses at Washington Square Park are getting easier and easier to see with each passing day. I caught up with them on a windy Friday. The video is very shaky but is fun none the less.
It looks like we’re going to have a record number of successful nests in Manhattan this year, although it looks like after the cold winter we may have more nests with one or two eyasses rather than three. I can’t wait for us to get an accurate count. I suspect we’ll end up having at least fifty Red-tailed Hawks in Manhattan by the time the last nest hatches. Plus we have many more in the other boroughs.
Too bad folks still only think about Pale Male when you talk about Red-tailed Hawks in New York City!
