On a rather gray day, it was fun to be in Washington Square Park.  The eyass was very active and both parents were on the nest together.  Afterwards the male ended up being harassed by two Northern Mockingbirds.  In the late evening, both parents were on the scaffolding on the east side of the park.

Today morning in Washington Square Park, a group of online hawk camera watchers and chat users met to extend their cyber life into real life.

It’s a good thing too.  Once this youngster fledges, everyone will need to know each other. It’s a lot more work, but a lot more fun to track a fledgling in person.  The Washington Square hawk watchers are internet savvy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this fledgling’s location is reported via twitter rather than email or phone calls.

Many of the web cam watchers were making their first visit to the nest.  It was fun to watch the excitement of everyone when Bobby perched on One Fifth Avenue, or when both parents circled high above 11th Street to escort an intruder away.

The eastern portion of the park, which has been under construction is now open.  I took advantage of the newly opened space to look for perches on buildings too difficult to see while the eastern section of the park was closed.  My search ended up being very rewarding.  I found a location where one hawk was eating and later some scaffolding where both parents were perched twenty feet apart.

The first day of June was very hot and humid in New York City.  Washington Square was quieter than normal, especially with the fountain under reconstruction.

The lone eyass in the nest looks to be doing just fine.  It seems to be comfortable moving to different locations on the window ledge.  The mother spent most of the time I was in the square perched on a window one over to the east from the nest.

If you look closely, you’ll see someone taking small peeks at the mother and the eyass.

The music in the park this evening was Jazz and Opera.

Although the eyass at Washington Square still sleeps a great deal, the young bird is now fairly easy to watch from the park.  I don’t follow the chat rooms of the webcam, but I understand there is a lot of needless worrying.

Relax folks and enjoy the view.  As the juvenile feathers grow in, watch how they appear.  If you use a diagram like the one in Sibley’s Birding Basics, you can watch each group of feathers grow in and really understand how everything works.

Watch the mother feel more and more comfortable leaving the eyass alone.  Observe how the mother begins to encourage the eyass to feed itself.  Watch the mother show her white patch on her head, to trigger the father to release food he’s brought.  Watch the eyass begin to practice wing flapping and jumping.  Observe and learn and don’t worry.

While I was away on vacation, I received a note from someone who had additional information about the Washington Square nest and they informed me that I was too harsh on the NYS DEC team that visited the nest on the Thursday before last.

In my comments about the operation, I was trying to be critical of the NYS DEC's approach to high profile situations, which I feel lack transparency, have a tendency to include credentialed but inexperienced experts and fails to involve/educate local rehabbers.

My statement inappropriately implied that the assembled team on that Thursday was not professional. The team did include a number of highly experienced experts, some of whom had extensive rehabilitation experience.  To anyone whose reputation I might have slighted through a poor choice of words, please accept my apologies.  The conservative action taken that day has turned out to be an appropriate choice.

This female Red-tailed hawk at Washington Square had problems last Friday when she was caught in some string.  At that time, it was also clear that she had problems with the bird band on her right leg.

It was determined that she was having problems with her foot.  Athough the band might not have been the cause of her problem, it clearly wasn’t helping her recovery.  (In the last week, pictures were collected and the circulation problems seem to have existed for at least six months with this female.)

Today, the N.Y.S. DEC had a number of experts at N.Y.U. who spent time an hour on the roof without any of the necessary equipment to assist the female, if that was warranted.  So, it seems preordained that nothing was going to be done today.

It’s unfortunate.  This week was the perfect time to remove the band.  The mother didn’t need to keep eggs warm, the eyass was small enough it could not be frightened off the nest, and the mother would attack anyone coming near the nest, so it would be fairly easy to catch her.  Any other time of the year, it will be very difficult to catch her.

So, the window to remove her band and make her life more comfortable is almost gone.  I hate it when protecting your goverment job trumps being humane. 

Someone should open the bathroom window near the nest, and as she defends the nest, catch her.  Then remove the band and return her to her nest.  I don’t understand why this action is not being taken.  If she doesn’t let herself get caught, no harm, and if she can easily be caught her tight band can be removed.

In the pictures below, you can see that Bobby has two missing secondary feathers on his right wing.  This is a great temporary field mark to tell him apart from Violet.  It will go away this summer when he molts and gains new feathers.