Great Manhattan Nest Checklist For 2015
The Morningside Hawks blog has done a wonderful job of creating a summary of the Manhattan Red-tailed Hawk nest sites for 2015. Robert has written a great history of each location too. Thanks!
Washington Square Nest
Our third female is sitting on the nest in Washington Square. She was visible only a few times in the late afternoon and early evening. Her mate visited at dusk, but she didn’t leave the nest. Other birds in the park included at least eight Palm Warblers and a Hermit Thrush.
Too Many Nests
We have so many Red-tailed Hawk nests in New York City, I can’t follow all of them anymore. But I did get to a few this weekend. I visited Sheep Meadow and Fifth Avenue on Saturday and all is good there. And I visited St. John and Riverside/West End on Sunday.
(For news of the uptown nests, visit the Morningside Hawks Blog.)
The St. John nest is in a new location on a turret above the statue of St. Peter on the rear of the Cathedral. It’s one saint to the left of St. Andrew, where the nest has been for a number of years. Construction of two new apartment buildings most likely encouraged the move. The new nest is not protected from the rain, so it will be interesting to see how things turn out.
The nest on West End Avenue looked fine. The female was visible for a few minutes about every twenty minutes.
Sheep Meadow
After an Easter vacation, I was finally able to get some hawk watching in on Wednesday afternoon. The Sheep Meadow nest is active again and the female was sitting on her eggs. The male circled overhead a few times but there was not exchange while I was there.
Fifth Avenue
The Fifth Avenue nest also has a brooding female. Tonight, when Pale Male flew by, she was off the nest before he landed by about ten seconds. I guess she really wanted a break! She wasn’t gone long, maybe ten or fifteen minutes.
Nesting Time on Avenue A
After visiting Washington Square it was off to Avenue A, and the new location of the Tompkins Square Park nest. This location is going to be hard to photograph. But the apartment owners have set up a camera, Avenue A Camera, so it should be a fun nest to follow.
