I watched the Ritz-Carlton nest on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, not much happened between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

So, on Friday I visited around 4 pm. When I arrived, the male was circling ear the nest with a small rodent, which could either have been a mouse or a small rat. Somewhat comically, two Rock Pigeons were chasing him for a few minutes. He dropped the rat off, but didn’t stay on the nest. He just left.

The female then left the nest with the rodent, went three buildings to the west, and ate it. She returned to the nest within ten minutes.

(This is typical behavior. To keep the nest clean, the female will almost always eat off the nest. And I’m not surprised the male didn’t stay and incubate the eggs. I’ve seen it take a few days for an inexperienced male to understand his “duties”.)

After she returned to the nest, we found the male in a high tree in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary. The Bluejays found him and after ignoring their abuse he flew west.

Tonight, I arrived to see the female brooding on the nest. She clearly was incubating at least one egg. Unlike the previous days, she was always on top of the eggs, making contact with her brood patch, rather than sitting upright. I didn’t see the male and the female stayed on the nest the entire time I visited from about 5:30 until 7:00. Nest watching can be a bit boring at times!

Red-tailed Hawks lay their eggs one at a time, 36-48 hours apart. When the first egg is laid, you see lots of behavioral changes. The female stops standing upright on the nest, and begins to lay flat. She also does a “shimmy”, where she wiggles to get the best contact between her brood patch on her chest and the eggs, when she lays down. The pair also does exchanges, where the male takes over egg warming duties and gives the female a break.

Today, I saw all of these behaviors. So there is a good chance an egg was laid. If so, this would mean we might have hatchlings on the last week of April or the first week of May. Fingers crossed!

The female of the pair was glued to the nest, although she was upright most to fit time. I only saw the male arrive briefly around 6:30 p.m. after I put my camera way. I really hope this nest works out!

The female Red-tailed Hawk of the Ritz-Carton pair spent the afternoon on the nest. The male visited twice while I was watching. She doesn’t seen to have laid eggs yet, but looks to be getting ready.

She can hide out of view on the nest, or can only be seen from the west or the east. She may have been on the nest on Thursday and Friday, when I couldn’t find her.

I went by around noon today, and didn’t see the hawks but returned around 4 pm. I thought I had struck out, but after about twenty minutes, the male appeared. He circled around the nest with a twig, but got more interested in scaring up all the pigeons that feed on the horse feed just inside the park at Sixth Avenue.

He ended up perching in Hallett Nature Sanctuary for about ten minutes before leaving. I caught up with him again as he went to the nest.

I’m a bit confused about what’s going on as I had been seeing the female near the nest each day. I haven’t seen her in the last two day. I don’t think she’s on the nest yet, so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few days.