Red-tailed Hawk Nest Updates

2021 Manhattan Red-tailed Hawk Nest Update 4

The main news of the week has been a report from Ginny de Liagre of a nest being rapidly built just west of the West Drive’s W0302 streetlight. The pair originally from 350 Central Park West, that moved to 1115 Fifth Avenue this year, abandoned the Fifth Avenue location due to construction on the building last week.

Our hope is that this new nest belongs to this pair and they will attempt a second clutch soon. This paper, The Laying of Replacement Clutches by Falconifoema and Strigiforms In North America by Michael L. Morrison and Brian James Walton says to expect a recycling time between 12-25 days, with 17 days being the average for Red-tailed Hawks. So, if a second clutch happens it will most likely be the 3rd or 4th week of April.

(For those not in the know, all of Central Park’s streetlights have a number. The format is DNNXX, where D is the Drive name in this case West Drive, NN is the cross street with the 1 omitted for streets above 99 making 03 be 103rd Street, and XX is the number of the light, so in this case 2 means the second light. Before cell phones with GPS, this is how we know where we were if we got lost in the park.)

Two other pieces of news also came in this week. Richard Schmunk let me know the nest at 135th and Amsterdam had been removed from the fire escape with some unconfirmed reports that it might have been rebuild near Broadway. Via Facebook, I’ve received news from Patrick Delaney that hawks are being seen around the hotels at 55th and Fifth Avenue, both on the St. Regis and a few twigs were brought to The Peninsula.

Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Washington Square Park Brooding

With a break in the rain, I went down to Washington Square Park. The female was laying on the nest, and got up only a few times. Late in the day, the male arrived on the Pless building railing and called. The female stayed on the nest and the male eat some on Pless and some on the Stern Graduate Building.

Eventually the male went to the nest, and the female and male went to the Judson Church cross. They stayed for about eight minutes, before the female returned to the nest. The male left the cross after about ten more minutes.

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Pale Male and Octavia

I visited all three Fifth Avenue nests on Saturday. Thomas Cardinal Cooke looked fine and I saw one exchange (hawks switching egg warming duties) and saw the female on the 1115 Fifth Avenue nest.

The nicest thing I saw was Octavia on the nest and Pale Male on the “Linda” building. They both looked great and based on Octavia’s behavior on the nest, she may soon be laying eggs.

I’m giving a lecture about Pale Male and his family on April 8th to benefit NYC Audubon. More details are on their new website, here. NYC Audubon has done some so much to support Pale Male over the years, I hope you join me.

Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Washington Square Park

It looks like the female is closer to brooding based on today’s behavior. She was solidly on the nest and looked to be making sure everything was “just right” for her 35 day sit. Many hawk watcher in NYC, very unscientifically call this being “eggnent”, the two or three day period where the female is glued to the nest but hasn’t laid eggs yet. I’ll go back in a few days to see how things are going.

Northwest Central Park Hawks

New Nest, but Old Hawks

Today, I got to the 1115 Fifth Avenue nest a bit after noon to find the workman on a rig near the nest, but the brooding female calmly sitting on the nest. I had been concerned about how she would react to the rig being near the nest when I saw them move the supports closer to the nest on Wednesday.

Given that things seemed to be fine, and fog was making it hard to see the 1115 Fifth Avenue nest, I looked at other nests. The 350 Central Park West nest is empty, and I also checked on the St. John the Divine nest, which was also empty, although I did see a hawk on the Telephone Co. Building. I then made a trip down to Washington Square Park, and found the new female in the nest but not yet sitting on eggs. I will detail what I saw in a separate post.

I then returned to the 1115 Fifth Avenue nest in the late afternoon and a group of us came to understand that the 1115 Fifth Avenue pair was the 350 Central Park West pair. The female has the same deformed tail. But more interestingly, the male was perched on the building at the southwest corner of 96th and Central Park West, which has a perfect view of the new nest. At dusk, he flew over and gave the female a ten minute break. This explained why we had been seeing him so often near the old nest. It’s only three blocks away from the new nest, and they’re maintaining the territory. Riddle solved.