Urban Hawks

Thanks to a call from Lincoln Karim, I got to photograph the 888 fledgling who is now very, very difficult to find.  It has been raining, so her coloring is more intense than usual.

After the discovery of the Red-tailed Hawk nest on the Unisphere in Queens, I thought global domination by Red-tails was over for the season.  But the adult male of the 888 Seventh Avenue nest proved me wrong.  He perched on the replica of the Unisphere outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower on Tuesday evening, just outside the park at 60th and Central Park West.

The 888 Seventh Avenue fledgling is doing great.  She’s now a quite capable hunter.  On Tuesday evening, she captured a large rodent and put on show for the tourists at the south of the park.

She’s becoming much harder to find, a sign of her increasing independence.  I won’t be surprised if she leaves the park soon to begin her life’s adventure away from her parents. I’ll miss her, but will be happy knowing that Central Park has been a safe haven for yet another Red-tail youngster.

Not to be out done by their child, the 888 Seventh Avenue parents spent the night on 15 Central Park West.  This may be the highest roost, we’ve seen a Red-tailed Hawk use.

While I was watching these two, an inline skater came by and showed me pictures from earlier in the evening.  It was of the 888 Seventh Avenue fledgling.  She was hunting on the bridge just inside the park from Central Park South at Seventh Avenue.  Unfortunately, while he was taking pictures someone actually went up to the fledgling and touched her.  No harm was done, but it’s a shame some New Yorkers don’t have common sense!

On Sunday evening, I found the 888 fledgling high atop the new Zeckendorf building at 15 Central Park West. She looked quite majestic that high up.  I think she’s sitting on a 45 million dollar condo!  The building’s 201 units sold for over 2 billion. The 888 Seventh Avenue hawks have expensive tastes!