Urban Hawks

The fledglings have started using trees and that makes them much harder to keep track of. This afternoon it took me over three hours to find all of them and their parents.

When I arrived one fledgling was back on the nest. It stayed there but eventually flew to the right hand shield before flying into Central Park late in the afternoon when the father brought some food.

One fledgling was in a tree across from the Essex House about 50 feet inside the park. It was staring me in the face but without any harassing robins or jays, took me awhile to find. The father was in the next tree keeping watch for about an hour.

The mother appeared around 5 pm on 200 Central Park South.

The last member of the family, was nearby the whole time. I could hear it calling for food, for about an hour but couldn’t find it. Eventually another hawk watcher found it.

So, we saw everyone but it took time to find them all.

I was away for a few days and I missed some excitement at the NYAC. The last fledgling ended up having troubles landing on the glass balconies of 200 Central Park West and ended up being in a small tree at ground level. The police took it to the Wild Bird Fund and it was then returned to the park.

When I was there on Sunday, all three fledglings were on the NYAC. Two on the nest and one on a windowsill on the 7th Avenue side. The parents were together on scaffolding on Hampshire House.

However, when I returned at dusk, I didn’t see any of the fledglings on the NYAC and could only find the mother, who was looking out from 222 Central Park South.

I arrived at the NYAC around 6 pm tonight. I had a busy day, and came after visiting the 93rd Street nest. As I walked from the subway, I saw a fledgling on 200 Central Park South. It was on a terrace railing. I could also see only one eyass on the nest.

I than ran into a group of hawk watchers who showed me a second fledgling in a Honey Locust. The bird was above an ice cream truck.

The observers said they hadn’t seen the fledge of the second bird, so they couldn’t say who was who. I suspect that the bird on 200 Central Park South was the first hawk to fledge.

The bird above the ice cream truck stayed put while I was there but the one on 200 Central Park South got active, moving east along the railing and jumping down to the balcony floors and back up to railing. Eventually, it flew off the building. It tried to land on the NYAC but misjudged, then went by the nest and eventually tried to go up to a balcony on the eastern edge of the Essex House. It missed the landing and drifted down a corner of the building about 30 feet before righting itself and flying across the street to a London Plane tree.

The adult female who watched all this perched first on the Essex House, before perching further west. She eventually joined the remaining eyass on the nest and had a snack.

It was getting dark, so I went home. I’ll be away for a few days but can’t wait to see how all of the various hawk nest in Manhattan turn out. We still have lots of birds who will be fledging soon.