I made another visit to 310 West 72nd Street.  The eyasses look great.  I thought there were three, but it might be only two on the nest.  While recording, a local showed me pictures of a fledgling from last year who showed up on her terrace last year.  She was stunned to hear it was a youngster.

These young hawks should be leaving the nest soon.   There tails are a bit short, but they should grow in within a few days.  It will be great to have some young hawks in Riverside Park this year.

For the third year, the 310 West 72nd Street is active.  I think there are three eyasses this year.  It’s a tough nest to watch as it is in a fairly wide rain gutter just below the roof line on the east side of the north face of the building.  An adult visited twice.  “Trash” was taken out around 3:30, followed later by a feeding around 4:45 p.m. 

The female was high on the 310 West 72nd Street nest when I arrived.  But I couldn’t tell for sure if the nest had hatched.  This is one of the most difficult nests in Manhattan to observe.  It might be June before we figure out how the nest is doing.

The remaining fledgling at Grant’s Tomb is still too healthy to catch.  It flew easily between the current nest to the old nest and back this afternoon.  Until it gets weaker or hungry/thirsty it can’t be caught.  So, the Urban Park Rangers just have to wait.  They’re consulting with an experienced rehabber and they are monitoring the bird ever day.

The fledgling cries when the Peregrine Falcons go by and cries while looking at its mother’s favorite perch.  Just like a crying human baby, the sounds are difficult to listen to.  They make you want to do something. But in this case “The Crying Game” is really “A Waiting Game”.  The bird needs to wear itself out and come to the ground and let itself be caught.

So, for now doing nothing is the best thing that can be done. Sadly, the fledgling needs to let itself be caught, something we can’t do for it.

I suspect the fledgling will get captured on Saturday or Sunday.

Update: From Susan Kirby via Twitter on Saturday: “Third Grant’s Tomb red-tailed #hawk fledgling rescued and on way to #WINORR. Thanks, Rangers Rob Mastrianni and Dan Tainow, and Bobby Horvath. Love this baby!”

I arrived at Grant’s Tomb after the rehabilitator had already left with one of the fledglings, so what I’m going to say is all second hand.  A few days ago the male crashed into a window hard enough to break the glass.  He hasn’t been seen since.  The female got into an accident with a car, and appears to have rodenticide poising.

This leave all three fledglings with no one to feed them.   So, Bobby Horvath of WINORR came to capture the fledglings.  He got one, but two can fly too well to be captured at this point.  It will be a challenge to capture these two!  Good luck Bobby!

Here are picture of one of the fledglings that needs to be put into protective care.

I finally had a chance to run over to 310 West 72nd Street this afternoon.  It took about 20 minutes for a hawk to be visible.  Then two, and then three.  I had seen an early photo of the nest and thought there were only two, so three eyasses was a nice surprise.

The nest is in a wide rain gutter, so the hawks have a “runway” to explore.  It was fun to watch them go up and down the “runway”.  Just before a rain shower, an adult arrived to check in on the kids.