Briarwood, Queens

By D. Bruce YoltonOther Red-tailed Hawks

I visited the Briarwood, Queens nest today. It still had one eyass on the nest and a fledgling exploring nearby.  The mother was visible, but I didn’t see the father.  This was my first visit to the location.

These two bring my count for Red-tailed Hawk youngsters to 19 for the season.  Wow!  Red-tails are doing wonderfully this season.  Briarwood also marks my first fledgling sighting of the season.

For more about these hawks and their history, visit Jeffrey Kollbrunner’s Nature Gallery.

The Audubon web camera is on the left and the nest on the right.
The mother.
The eyas that remains on the nest.
The eyas looks ready to fledge.
I didn’t expect to be able to find the fledgling, but out of the blue, it appeared within twenty feet of the nest.
I had expected to have a hard time.  The area surrounding the nest includes a few highways.  Usually, if all else fails, you can hear a fledgling beg for food.  In this location however, hearing the fledgling will be difficult because of all the traffic noise.
The fledgling in a tree.  It jumped/flapped awkwardly from branch to branch.  It still has lot of learning to do.
I lost the fledgling for about fifteen minutes and then rediscovered it by accident.
It did something very frightening.  It explored the razor wire.
I was so worried, but did my best to stay still and calm.  I didn’t want to startle it and cause it to injure itself.
It looked caught for a few long seconds, but did a good job maneuvering.
I just hope once was enough.  I don’t want to watch this again.
Luckily, it soon moved to a much safer place.
If there was a caption writing contest, I’m sure the winner would be “Mom, why aren’t we on the dollar bill?”
To a long and happy life, youngster!