If I counted properly, we have three eyasses in the Sheep Meadow nest this year. They were tough to see. Their mother left unattended for a good period and then returned to a perch above them kept an eye on them for over an hour before returning to the nest. She was also keeping an eye on the workers building a huge stage and sound systems for the AIDS Walk on Sunday.
I had visited the Sheep Meadow nest on Friday. Except for the female being higher in the nest than normal, there was no sign of a hatch. But today, after a visit by the male who seemed to be mesmerized by the contents of the nest, the female did a brief feeding. It will be a few days before we can take “baby pictures”, but it’s great to see these hawks do well in their second year.
This year, the male has a strange tail feather. While red in color it has stripes like a juvenile feather. Something I’ve never seen before on a Red-tailed Hawk.
I’m looking forward to the 2015 Red-tailed Hawk nest hatches in Central and Morningside Parks. We have three confirmed nests in Central Park, a pair seen frequently in the NE section of the Central Park, and our Cathedral hawks have a new nest location exposed to the elements.
With any new season, I look forward to discovering new aspects of urban Red-tailed Hawk behavior.
Three Central Park nests is fantastic news this year. But one has to wonder about locations and why these three nests are so close together? Do these three Red-tailed hawk pairs benefit by having protected flanks from the other pairs? Does this outweigh any issues over food contention, etc.? Or did the new nest locations have nothing to do with the other nest locations? It will be interesting to see when other raptor species fly over the park, if the Red-tailed Hawks work together to escort them away. And which pair will tale over the Locust Grove.
The Beresford Apartment nest will have new fledglings who will have to cross Central Park West to end up in Central Park or maybe even Teddy Roosevelt Park. Which buildings will they perch on the first few weeks? The Museum of Natural History? Or like many Red-tails, will they try to get as high as possible the first week and end up back on the Beresford? Where will the parents take them to hunt? South to the calm lawn south of The Yard? Or up North?
How will the exposed nest do at the Cathedral of Saint John? Will it be as productive as St. Andrew had been?
And is there a forth pair nesting near the park? Almost all of the experienced hawk watchers in Central Park saw a pair of hawks all winter around the Conservatory Garden. In April, many of us have seen a single hawk in the park, who flies over to Madison Avenue between 100th to 106th. Is there a nest tucked away a block from the park or in the public housing east of Madison?
I’m looking forward to learning more about Red-tailed Hawks this season. How fantastic is it that one of the best places to study Red-tailed Hawks is in the middle of Big Apple! New York City truly is one hell of a town.
The leaves are restricting the viewing angles for the Sheep Meadow nest, so I took what small window I had left from the south to take some portraits of the brooding female this afternoon.
After an Easter vacation, I was finally able to get some hawk watching in on Wednesday afternoon. The Sheep Meadow nest is active again and the female was sitting on her eggs. The male circled overhead a few times but there was not exchange while I was there.
I saw four Juvenile Red-tails along with the Sheep Meadow adults around the rink and the Pond on Monday afternoon/evening. It was a surprising number.
Past sunset, when I would have expected all of them to be roosting, one of the Juvenile hawks caught and ate a rat, well into the evening. This is the latest I’ve ever seen a Red-tailed Hawk eat.
