With each day, it becomes more certain that the nest has failed yet again. I look for signs of an eyass, and can’t find one, except that Pale Male is bringing food directly to the nest. There have been no signs of a feeding, and Lola is still sitting down deeply on the eggs.
It would be wonderful to be wrong about this, but I have to be realistic.
Wednesday Evening was very quiet at Fifth Avenue, with Lola only getting up once to reposition herself.
After signs that their might have been a hatch on Fifth Avenue, it is looking more and more like we may have another nest failure.
I went by the nest in a break in the rain to see what was happening. Pale Male had visited before I had arrived. Lola was sitting on the nest. Nothing much happened!
It was back to “normal” on the nest today, which does not bode well for the viability of the nest. I was at the nest for only the end of the day, having gone up north to look for eyasses.
There was a simple exchange with Pale Male bringing food for Lola.
It was a beautiful day on Saturday. The warm weather and the continued stay of the Yellow-throated Warbler brought out large numbers of birders and hawk watchers.
Pale Male and Lola did not have an exchange in the afternoon. He visited the nest and then left.
Lola stayed settled down in the nest for most of the afternoon, only getting up a few times. If there had been a hatch, you would expected for her to have been up more than yesterday. So, this was not a positive sign.
Figuring out if a nest has hatched, when you can’t see inside, is a challenge. On Fifth Avenue, hawk watchers look for changes in behavior.
Today, on a warm, sunny spring day, we saw two behavior changes.
These behavior changes may mean nothing. If they are followed up with more behavior changes and in a few days a feeding, we’ll have good news.
But for now, they don’t mean anything. They could easily be a false alarm caused by a warm spring day.
