Urban Hawks

Sunday was four stories:

• A new fledgling (2nd) exploring and being fed for the first time off the nest.
• Friday’s fledgling playing in the wind on top of the Silver Building.
• The last eyass fledged late in the day, had a rough landing, and ended up in a crowed park.
• A fledgling (either the 1st or 2nd) ended up on the sidewalk on Greene Street at dusk, but eventually flew down 1/2 a block and gained speed/height enough to find a roost for the night.

An exciting day to say the least. Time constraints prevent me from writing the full narrative, but I wanted to post the video and photographs as soon as possible.

Another bird took flight for the first time early this morning.  I’ll be in the park this afternoon and will give live reports if possible.  Follow me on Livestream, new.livestream.com/urbanhawks for notifications of broadcasts.

Update: Third also fledged.  There was some drama, but everyone is fine as of Sunday night.

Except for the fledgling begging for food, it was a quiet day in Washington Square.  The fledgling moved back and forth across building on Waverly Street.  Just as I got there mid-afternoon, it was on the Silver Building and flew to 1 Fifth Avenue, about a block away.  It was a nice strong flight. 

In the first week, we see the fledglings play king of the mountain on the buildings trying to get to a the high point.  This might be what’s happening here.  The parents were aware of the fledgling but didn’t feed it from what I could see.  They might be trying to lure it back to the park.

The eyasses still on the nest were being attended to by the parents, and when I went to look at them around 6 p.m. Rosie was just delivering a small rodent.

It was a good day to relax.  We might have some excitement on Sunday.

The fledge day at Washington Square (May 31st) started out simply with the oldest eyass fledgling from the nest (1) to a window ledge four windows east (2) around 10:30 a.m.  When I arrived at Noon and for most of the afternoon the fledgling was relaxed and looked like it would be staying put for the day. The mother visited briefly, but spent much more time on the nest with the two eyasses remaining there.

But at 4:45 p.m. the fledgling made a trip north.  I suspect the fledgling wanted to land on the building the parents cache food, but the fledgling ended up on a Public Safety van on Washington Place and then slid down to the street (3).   Understandably confused on its first day off the nest, it stayed in the street for a long time before moving over to the sidewalk.  It tried to get inside the Silver building, then walked ten feet before jumping onto the Public Safety van.  After a few attempts it got from the windshield to the top of the roof.  By now, we’re at about 5:15 p.m.

At first two experienced hawk watchers (chat room handles Roger Paw and JumpFlapper2) directed traffic, but by now the emergency box (blanket, gloves, box) had been retrieved. Public Safety officers controlled onlookers, and an Urban Park Ranger, as well as folks from the chat room had arrived to keep watch.  Fledge days seem to bring out the best in folks and this day was no exception.  It’s days like this that make me proud to be a New Yorker.

In a rural setting, a newly fledged bird would get off the ground by jumping to a bush and gaining height slowly from branch to branch of smaller trees to mature trees.  In Greenwich Village, this means window ledges, scaffolding, and on this day a UPS truck.

From the van, the fledgling moved across the street to some scaffolding (4) and made its way to the top of a UPS van, moved briefly across the street to the Brown Building and then back south to the shed (NYC term for the area at the top of scaffolding) and windows ledges above where it had been (5).  Quick thinking Public Safety officers closed all of the open windows on the second floor to make sure the fledging didn’t try to hide inside the building.  (There may have been an additional back and forth between buildings, but things happened so quickly I can’t remember.)

The fledgling stayed put for a long while, occationally jumping up to lips and ledges on the stone work, and missing more often than not.  The youngster was learning on its first day.  What’s too small, what’s too wide, etc.

By now we’re at about 6:40 p.m. and it’s back to the Brown Building (6).  Here the bird sits on a window sill for the longest time before discovering a narrow ledge around the building.  Around the building the bird goes with Chemistry students taking camera phone pictures from inside.

The ledge wraps around the building, so we move from Washington Place to Greene Street (7). At the end of the ledge, the fledgling jumps on a support for a flag pole. By now it’s 8:10 p.m. and the fledgling flies across the street gaining about ten feet (8).   Then it’s across the street to a fourth floor window sill, where the hawk roosts for the night (9), 9 p.m.

The eyasses on the Washington Square nest look all ready to go, but seem to be in no rush.  There parents don’t seem to be in a rush either.  So, we just wait and hope they’ll fledge soon.

The eyasses will become fledglings any day now.  As we watch and wait for the big event(s), we get to watch eyasses that are now looking angelic after a “ugly duckling” stage, get ready for their big day(s).

On the video from this evening, you can see one of the eyasses jump at the window, around 6:40.  As you can see from a section of the video and some of the photographs, the hawk is trying to land on the edge of a picture frame on the other side of the glass.  For a species that is used to branching from tree branch to tree branch around a tree nest before fledgling, the lack of branches must be confusing and frustrating to an eyass being raised on a window ledge.