I got lucky on Monday.  When I arrived at Governors Island, the Red-tailed Parents and a fledgling flew back and forth from the weathervane to the communications tower for about 45 minutes.  It looks like in early August the fledgling is being a pest.  It’s time he/she starts to learn to hunt and he/she was looking for handouts.  How this develops over the next few weeks will be fun to watch.

After all of the action was over, I did catch up with one of the adults who was harvesting branches.  I think it was the male.  It looks like he’s adding twigs to a different spot on the communications tower.

For years we’ve seen second year hawks and adult hawks out on Governors Island but never found a nest or saw fledglings.  This year, while Governors Island was closed to visitors, a nest was built, and was successful.

The opening of the island was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Today was the first day the island was open to the public for the year. On the first ferry open to the public, I counted five other bird watchers looking to see what was out on the island.

The Red-tailed Hawk parents were easy to find.  One was on the communications tower, where this year’s nest was located.  The other on a weathervane.  

I couldn’t find the fledglings, and almost gave up before finally finding one in a tree in the middle of the Urban Farm.  This area is locked and not open to the general public, but I was able to take a few photographs.

I made my last trip to Governors Island for the season on October 28th.  A Red-tailed Hawk was on a speaker pole at Fort Jay, and then made a hunting pass, before taking a drink from a rain gutter.  Photographers have been seeing two or three different adult Red-tailed Hawks this fall.  Let’s hope two of them build a nest over the winter.

An afternoon trip to Governors Island had the highlight of this Red-tailed Hawk perched on a weather vane.  I think this is the second-year hawk, I’ve seen earlier in the year on the island.