The Randall’s Island Red-tailed Hawk nest has at least on eyass on the nest as of Wednesday. I was able to see a small head, in addition to their mother, while visiting the island to see the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, a rarity that was found by Karen Becker on the abandoned golf range.
The success of this nest was welcome news, given the abandonment of the American Museum of Natural History nest and the death of an eyass at 93rd Street.
The Randalls Island Red-tailed Hawk nest on the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, found last year by Ben Cacace is active again this year. (See last year’s post for location details.)
The female was on the nest on Thursday. While I was there she got up, had a brief stretch before rolling her eggs, and settling back down on the nest.
Ben Cacace let me know of a Red-tailed Hawk Nest on Randalls Island a few weeks ago, but I finally had a chance to see it on Monday. It is one floor down from the top of the southern most tower of the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, 105 Rivers Edge Road, on the western wing’s western facade.
The nest is deep in an exhaust pipe of some sort and is difficult to see into. It appears there are two eyasses. I got some poor video of a parent and the young ones quickly shot when I arrived. Once I got fully set up, the young ones went to sleep out of view so I was unable to record more video.
There is a pair of hawks again at the Museum of the City of New York at 103rd and Fifth Avenue again. The previous female died just before nesting began last year. So it was nice to see the male bring a rodent to the female, which she ate on top of the Arsenal North, just to the north of the nest building.
There is also a new nest at 93rd and Central Park West, just inside the park. So, we have at least two active pairs in the park.
After Valentine’s day, we start to see hawks copulating and nest building. Send me an email if you have news of other hawk pairs in Central Park or Manhattan.
A young hawk was bathing in the shallow waters of the Pond, just north of Gapstow Bridge. It really seemed to be having fun having a bath!
A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was hunting in the Maintenance Meadow, in the Ramble of Central Park, this afternoon. It was going after squirrels and may be the same individual that caught an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit a few days ago.
It’s unclear if this hawk is one of the fledglings from either the Pinetum or Terence Cardinal Cooke nest or a newly arrived migrant.
