Fifth Avenue
It looks like we still have a few more days before the nest hatches at Fifth Avenue. I looked for signs of a hatch but found none tonight. Pale Male was on the Carlyle Hotel and Octavia was on the nest.
Hatch Watch Begins Soon
NYC hawk watchers will be looking at nests for signs of hatching over the next few weeks. Calculating hatches can be complicated. While egg take 28-25 days to incubate
- females may begin to sit on nests a few days before they lay their eggs
- egg are laid 36-48 hours apart and incubation may not fully begin until the last egg is laid
- an egg takes about a day to hatch as the chick pips out of the egg and feeding usually doesn’t begin right after hatching
Since we can rarely look into a nest, we’ll be looking for signs of a hatch such as a hawk slice from an eyass (pooping chick), a victory flight lap by the parents or lots of food being brought to the nest by the male and a first feeding. It takes a few extra days from when we see a feeding until we can see fuzzy heads too.
We might see a hatch by next weekend and certainly within two weeks. It’s a great time watch a nest and a sure sign that spring has arrived.
More photos of 96th Street
With better weather, I got to see a nest exchange and both hawks of the 96th Street pair today. Both hawks look great. It was the first time I got a good look at the male.
I look forward to learning about this pair over the next few months. It should be a fun summer in Central Park.
2016 Manhattan Nests – Update 2
Please email with any corrections or additions.
Updates this week:
- New nest inside the block bounded by 72nd Street, 71st Street, West End Avenue, Broadway
- New nest at 8 East 96th Street
- CCNY/Shepard Hall confirmed to be active
- Death of female near Canal Street, and location for nest
- Update on San Remo Pair
Late update: The Gorman Park Nest, which had been on a fire escape has been removed. Hawks are still being seen in Gorman/Ft. Tryon. Any news about the new nest location would be appreciated.
8 East 96th Street
Central Park has a new nest at 8 East 96th Street, on the 11th Floor, on an air conditioner in the second window from Fifth Avenue. It’s technically not in the park but outside it by about 100 yards. This pair had laid an egg on 98th Street earlier in the season, and I had given up on them, assuming they were too inexperienced to get their act together this year. So, news of the new location via the NYU nest chat room community was a great surprise.
San Remo Pair
While the egg dropping was a shock to me, a day later the San Remo pair was back to business as usual. The male was seen eating a rodent in Strawberry Field, both hawks visited the nest briefly, and the pair copulated north of Bow Bridge.
