Monday was a day for catching up on nests, and this included visiting St. John the Divine’s Common Raven nest. Despite the name “common”, they are rare breeders in Manhattan. The are using an abandoned Red-tailed Hawk nest. There are two nestlings.
Ben Cacace let me know of a Red-tailed Hawk Nest on Randals Island a few weeks ago, but I finally had a chance to see it on Monday. It is one floor down from the top of the southern most tower of the Manhattan Phyciatric Center, 105 Rivers Edge Road, on the western wing’s western facade.
The nest is deep in an exhaust pipe of some sort and is difficult to see into. It appears there are two eyasses. I got some poor video of a parent and the young ones quickly shot when I arrived. Once I got fully set up, the young ones went to sleep out of view so I was unable to record more video.
I had a great time in both the early afternoon and the early evening watching the New York Athletic Club nest. It reminds me of the Trump Park, 777 Seventh Avenue and Ritz-Carlton nests and the times I spent watching them.
The eyasses look to be the oldest of the nests I’ve been observing. All three eyasses look healthy, and they all did lots of “jump flapping” to exercise their wings.
New came in today of a newly discovered nest by Melissa Armo. It’s on the New York Athletic Club’s sixth floor. The building is on the Southeast corner of Central Park South and Seventh Avenue. The northern façade has two shields and the nest is behind the left (western) one. The nest needs to be viewed from the side. I was able to photograph it from the east and the west.
A parent came to the nest when I was viewing the nest around 5 pm. There are two, possibly three eyasses on the nest. It will take a few more trips to be sure.
I was able to watch the Wild Turkey at its Saint Bartholomew Church Ginkgo Tree roost on Thursday evening. I looked for it on Friday morning, but was unable to relocate it. Hopefully, it has moved on to a safer location than Park Avenue.
Update: A Turkey was reported on eBird. Check out this checklist from May 17th. It may very well be the bird from midtown.
I arrived on Thursday afternoon to find three sleepy eyasses. With the colder weather they seemed happy to cuddle.
