Urban Hawks

May 23, 2007December 28, 2020Red-tailed Hawk Nest Updates

Fledge Date Guesses for Manhattan

If you’ve been looking at the Queen’s Hawkcam, you’ll notice that the young are close to fledging. General wisdom is that it take between 42 and 46 days for a hawk to fledge. I’ve tried to take a guess at what I think the Manhattan hatch dates were and calculated the approximate fledge dates. Of course, the normal “Your mileage may vary” disclaimer applies here.

	Eyasses	Hatch (Best Guess)	+42	+46
Queens Nestcam	2	4/13	5/25	5/29
Highbridge	3	4/17	5/29	6/2
Inwood Hill	2	4/20	6/1	6/5
St. John	3	4/27	6/8	6/12
888 7th Avenue	1	4/29	6/10	6/14

One thing I’m sure of however, is that I need to spend this Memorial Day weekend visiting Highbridge and Inwood Hill Park before it’s too late!

May 22, 2007December 22, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Two or Three

The evening started quietly with the mother on the Archangel, and the nest quiet. Then the father came in and did a feeding with food which was already in the nest. Afterwards the eyasses were full of activity, and at one point it looked like we had three babies in the nest. We’ll know for sure in a few days.

Although this looks dignified, the eyasses don’t have much motor control yet and fall down a lot. They’re still at the toddler stage.

Three eyasses are visible. One flapping, one with its back to us behind the hand, and one on the right

The mother moves a little closer to the nest.

The father in his parking lot rodent hunting mode.

May 22, 2007December 15, 2020Owls

Tuesday, May 22nd

On news of the release of the three young owls back into the park, everyone from the core group of owl watchers came to watch the fly out.

It turned out to be an auditory rather than visual evening. The adult owls were not in the Willow this evening. We could hear groups of American Robins, crying in alarm and flying in and out of trees along the west drive.

When the branches were bare, it was easy to search for the owls in the twilight. Now that the trees have leafed out, the trees seem so much darker and dense. So tonight, I didn’t see a single owl perching.

Instead, we hear Robins and Owls. One owl made a soft song for about ten minutes. From this tree, we saw two owls fly out and fly into a tree further north. But the leaves were too dense for me to see anything once they landed again.

Eastern Screech-Owl watching may soon be coming to an end for this season.

May 21, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Monday, May 21st

I’ve been unable to watch the owls for a week. Tonight, Jean, Chris and I only saw two owls. It’s the right number of weeks for “natal dispersal” to have occurred, so it’s possible that the youngster is now off on its own.

I learned later this evening that the NYC Park Rangers released the three rescued fledglings back into the park near where the nest cavity had been, within an hour of my taking these pictures. Over the next few days, we should learn if the parents accept their young back, ignore them or are hostile to them. It should be an interesting week.

May 21, 2007December 22, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Cathedral Activity Increasing

The Cathedral eyasses are becoming more and more active, so visiting the nest is more rewarding.

Not too clear, but you can see an eyas on each side of the mother.

They’re still fuzzy, but are getting much bigger.

A wing of one eyas and then the head of another.

The mother took a break, couldn’t be found for about half an hour, and then was found on a building on 110th Street below Morningside Park. She’s in the golden light of the late evening sun.

May 17, 2007Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

888 Seventh Avenue Update

I just received a note from Brett Odom updating me on the status of the Seventh Avenue nest…

"Just wanted to give you an update. Everything seems to be fine and the nest is in an ideal location for rainstorms similar to the one we had yesterday since it is protect from all sides. Right now Charlotte is on the nest with the sleeping eyas and Junior is sitting on the Essex sign.

Regards,
Brett"

(For those not living in the New York area, yesterday, we had a severe thunderstorm roll through the area. This new nest is full protected from such storms, while the old Central Park South nest would have been completely soaked and exposed high winds.)