Obsessed with Fifth Avenue
It happens every year. I know it takes a few days before the eyasses are big enough to see, but I always try too soon to see them. I check every angle but it doesn’t help. I just need to be patient.
Pull and Twist
The last thing I needed to see to be sure the Fifth Avenue nest had hatched I saw on Monday evening, the classic feeding of an eyass. The mother pulls a piece of food off the prey and gently twists her head by 45-90 degrees to hand the food off to the eyass. Seeing this behavior removed all doubts about the nest hatching for me. Now the questions is how many eyasses is she feeding, two or three?
Fifth Avenue Maybe?
There is a good chance the Fifth Avenue nest has hatched. Food was visible, both hawk let the nest be exposed for long periods of time, and there were lots of flies. Plus, Octavia may or may not have done a feeding based on who you asked.
When some other hawk observers asked me what I thought, I said I’d like to wait at least one more day before calling it for certain. Things all looked right but why not wait a day to be sure.
Fifth Avenue
I was hoping to see signs of Pale Male and Octavia’s nest hatching today. But it looks like we’re still a few days away. Octavia spent a great deal of time standing up off the eggs, but it was a warm sunny day, so this could just have been due to the weather.
116th and Riverside Has Hatched
Although we can’t see the eyasses yet, frequent trips off the nest by the female, flies, what look like feedings and the male bringing in food, make it clear the nest has hatched. Nice to see a young couple with a new nest be successful. Between this nest, the Grant’s Tomb nest and the Peregrine Falcons on Riverside Church this should be a fun area to watch. And St. John the Divine is also a short walk away!
Grant’s Tomb Eyass
Welcome little one! My first glimpse of an eyass (hawk hatchling) this year. The eyass looked like it could be a week old. (Red-tailed Hawk eggs don’t hatch all at the same time, so it common for us to see one, then two then three eyasses. We may not know for a few weeks how many eyasses are in this nest.)
