Urban Hawks

After being difficult to find for two days, the rehabilitated fledgling was back by the north of the Met and the Ancient Playground today.  She was there from 11 a.m. til sunset.  She then roosted fairly high in a large tree half a block into the park.

I looked for the Fifth Avenue fledgling yesterday evening and this evening and came up empty.  That’s not too much of a surprise. Most fledglings wonder off this time of year and are difficult to track.

Its parents however were found.  Octavia was on a building at 84th and Fifth before going to a building a few blocks south, and then Pale Male and Octavia flew to the park.  We caught up with Pale Male in a favorite roosting tree near Cedar Hill.

When I arrived the rehabbed fledgling was on a railing on the path that follows the East Drive around 87th Street.   It had a group of folks getting very close with smartphones, and then tried to catch a rodent.  It came up empty and jumped back on the railing before flying across the street to the east side of Fifth Avenue.

I learned she had flown back and forth three times in the afternoon.  She’ not getting much height while flying.  She’s basically gliding and doing very little flapping.  Let’s hope she gains some strength and starts getting higher soon.

The young hawk who was returned to the park a week ago, is working her way up Museum Mile on Fifth Avenue.  Having started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, she was in front of the Neue Galerie New York yesterday and today she was in front of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.  She’s either a cultured hawk or she enjoys the rodents the food vendors attract!

I spotted her crossing the East Drive in the early afternoon and saw her land in a tree above the Fifth Avenue sidewalk that’s adjacent to park.  She stayed in this tree for over five hours, although she changed perches and direction a few times.  It was a hot afternoon, and the tree had lots of shade and a nice breeze.