Today, there were two youngsters on the nest and one youngster using buildings south of the eyrie. The fledgling continues to have problems putting weight on its left leg, but is a great flyer. It went to the water tank of a The Claremont at 255 West 85th Street, which is a 22 story building.
Everyone got fed and the parents were very active keeping track of the fledgling and exploring the neighborhood.
I arrived after the Eurasian Eagle-Owl had flown out to find him on a pile of compost. He then flew to a tree and quickly caught a rat behind one of the dumpsters. He mantled it for a few seconds before flying off to a hill, where he had to kill it. Tonight we heard two squeals, once when he caught the rate and once when he killed it.
After about ten minutes, he flew to a nearby tree where you could see him with a loose feather. (He began molting last week.) He continued to one of the Black Locusts before flying to another Black Locust with a good horizontal branch for eating. He then spent 40 minutes eating most of the rat.
He then went to a compost pile in the nursery changing positions a few times, but seemed uninterested in finish the rat. At that point it was late, and I left for the evening.
The video contains about 30 minutes of Flaco eating.
I had come by the eyrie on Monday, but missed seeing the first fledgling. Others had seen it on 530 West End Avenue.
On Tuesday, the first fledgling had been flying around in the afternoon, and I finally saw it on the top of 530 West End Avenue. The adult male brought it some food. The fledgling was limping a bit seeming to have trouble putting weight on its left leg. Hopefully, it’s just a strain and the problem will resolve on its own.
It appeared that two birds were off the eyrie at one point. Last year, we had the same problem where the fledglings kept going back to the tower, so it was hard to say who and how many had fledged. We had the same problem on Tuesday afternoon. Like last year, I can’t tell who is who. While they were growing up, I could see the age differences, but now the two oldest look very much alike.
I arrived at the eyrie around 1 p.m. to find one of the eyasses had already fledged to the northern fire escape of 530 West End Avenue four floors down from the top. The mother was on a railing watching over the new fledgeling, who as running across the fire escape. The fledgling made a few attempts to go through a closed window, only to learn it’s not possible.
Then it was up the ladder for the fledgling. It eventually when a floor higher. Newly fledged raptors seem to know to go higher, as it’s safer, and this one showed this instinct.
The bird did lots of flapping and was watched over from a building on 85th Street by the adult male. I didn’t spend much time looking at the eyrie and only spotted one of the two remaining eyasses.
Some fledge days are full of drama, when they fledge badly. I’m not sure what happened later in the evening, but at least while I was there everything seemed to be just as it should be.
Flaco has begun using the construction site after fly out again.
The compost heap had lots of work done to clean up the site. It’s unclear if all the commotion of the clean up, a dropping rodent population, a desire to spend the beginning of the evening without humans or some other factors are the cause for his change in habits.
All three eyasses were sleeping on the north ledge of the tower when I arrived. Once was so asleep, it was barely visible. There was lots of flapping and jumping around which was enjoyable. I suspect there was also a feeding, but I think it took place in the middle of the tower out of sight.
One of the eyasses looks close to fledging. I would like to see his tail grow in a bit more, but the bird could leave the nest very soon.
