Urban Hawks

June 18, 2006December 28, 2020Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

More from Saturday

After taking a break in the early afternoon, and a detour to Riverside Church, I returned to the Cathedral.

The hawk watchers up at the Cathedral compared their estimates for fledge dates today. The question of the day was, Did we have a precocious fledgling followed by a normal fledgling?, Or a regular fledgling followed by a reluctant one? The general consensus was that we had a precocious, first fledgling.

A photograph I forgot to post from earlier in the day of the adult female being bothered by a Mockingbird.

Three Peregrines come to attack the adult female. They were so fast, I couldn’t get a picture of all of them.

A fledgling on the scaffolding. At this point, I can’t tell them apart for sure.

The fledgling disappears, and after awhile one appears on St. Luke’s. This looks to be the new playground for the young hawks.

The young hawk experiments with the strong breeze.

…picks up some left over prey from earlier in the day…

The young hawk continues to play in the wind.

It soon moves about 15 feet on St. Luke’s after having some troubles finding solid footing.

The mother returns to the Cathedral, near St. Matthew.

June 17, 2006December 20, 2020Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

Riverside Church Peregrine Falcons

Seven blocks north and a few blocks west of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is Riverside Church. A pair of Peregrine Falcons have two fledglings there, who on late Saturday afternoon made the worst racket imaginable begging for food.

Adult Peregrine preparing food for a fledgling. It rained feathers.

The adult on the Interfaith Center, which everyone refers to as the “God Box”.

June 17, 2006December 20, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Empty Nest

At around 10:20 a.m, the second fledge occurred leaving the nest empty for the first time in over two and a half months.

I missed the fledge by about 15 minutes, but Barrie Raik was there to photograph the event. She has graciously provided these three photographs of the fledge. The feldgling left the nest and landed in a tree on Morningside Drive. I was soon mobbed by some catbirds and the adult female with the help of some prey, moved the feldgling to the Cathedral.

The adult male keeping a close eye on the new fledgling.

The adult female was perched on the Archangel Gabriel.

…flying off to 114th Street and Morningside Drive.

June 16, 2006December 20, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Still Won’t Budge

The second eyas continues to stay on the nest, although it’s finally looking like it wants to fledge.

Soon, the adult female moves to the Archangel Gabriel statute.

Leaving the eyas on the nest, first to doze off for awhile and then later in the day, to engage in more wing flapping.

The adult female moves to 301 West 110th Street.

Although the fledgling could be heard most of the afternoon, we only were able to see it after about 6:00 p.m.

June 15, 2006December 20, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Still Waiting

The eyas on who is still on the nest seemed to be in no hurry to leave on Thursday evening.

Nor do the parents seem to be in a hurry to get the eyas to fledge. Food continues to be regularly delivered to the nest.

The fledgling spent a good portion of the early evening perched within 20 feet of its sibling.

The fledgling then moved over to a cross on the eastern portion of the Cathedral.

As I left for the evening, the adult female was on 301 West 110th, which has new scaffolding.

The adult male was on St. Luke’s in the warm glow of the setting sun.

June 14, 2006December 20, 2020St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

I Won’t Grow Up!

The second eyas refuses to fledge. Its sibling left on Sunday, but it still remains on the nest.

We had lots of discussions up at the nest tonight, about dates (I had originally estimated the fledge date would be June 15th), if the first had fledged too early, and if there had been three chicks with one dying prematurely could these two hawks be four days apart in age, etc.

The delayed fledging of the second eyas and the return of the fledgling to the nest the first night make this a very unusual fledge.

I arrived around 6:20 p.m. to learn that there had been a very noisy encounter with a pair of Peregrine Falcons. The action was over, however, and everything seemed peaceful when I arrived.