I arrived at the Fifth Avenue nest late this evening and only got to see the tail end of a feeding. I understand lucky individuals got to see glimpses of an eyass, Wednesday and Thursday. I hope to shoot some images of a youngster this weekend.
Although the eyass at Washington Square still sleeps a great deal, the young bird is now fairly easy to watch from the park. I don’t follow the chat rooms of the webcam, but I understand there is a lot of needless worrying.
Relax folks and enjoy the view. As the juvenile feathers grow in, watch how they appear. If you use a diagram like the one in Sibley’s Birding Basics, you can watch each group of feathers grow in and really understand how everything works.
Watch the mother feel more and more comfortable leaving the eyass alone. Observe how the mother begins to encourage the eyass to feed itself. Watch the mother show her white patch on her head, to trigger the father to release food he’s brought. Watch the eyass begin to practice wing flapping and jumping. Observe and learn and don’t worry.
It looks like there are two eyasses in the nest at St. John the Divine. Both seem to be fairly active, and it’s now more likely than not to see at least one on a quick visit.
Update: Robert Schmunk reports on Wednesday, that it turns out there are three eyases on the nest. One is less developed than the other two, and thus harder to see.
The Riverside Park pair of Red-tailed Hawk eyasses is really close to fledgling. I wouldn’t be surprised if one is off the nest by Memorial Day. Today they did lots of wing flapping and branching. Their tails look a little too short and some feathers haven’t grown in on their heads, but otherwise they look pretty close to being ready for their first flights.
The Urban Park rangers have been doing a great job of helping the single parent mother feed the eyasses, by putting out food. I think this made a major difference for the outcome of this nest. The Rangers have also put up posters with simple do’s and don’t about how to respect the hawks. The posters remind dog owners to keep their dogs on leash.
There aren’t enough Urban Park Rangers or Parks Enforcement Police to enforce the leash laws in Riverside Park, so it is helpful if the hawk watching community talks to owners of dogs who have their dogs off leash. This doesn’t have to be an adversarial discussion. Last year, the mother would swoop over any loose dog that was chasing squirrels the week before they fledged. So, the issue is not only a hawk safety issue but also a dog safety issue.
I was hoping for a glimpse at a 5th Avenue eyass today, but they’re still too small. I suspect this Memorial Day weekend will be a better time to visit.
I received some comments about the previous years nest failures. It was suggested that in addition to the possibility of Lola being infertile over the last few years, it still could have been the cradle. The hypothesis being that after all these years the nest was finally built up high enough to prevent drafts/heat loss from the metal cradle. While this is a possibility, there have been a number of successful fire escape and air conditioner nests in the New York City area over the last few years. Since most of these nests worked their first year, and were similar to the cradle, I would place my bets on Lola being the problem. The nest isn’t that much higher than last year, and the biggest variable that changed was Lola being replaced by another mate.
In my post two days ago about signs that show a nest has hatched, I forgot about another way hawk watchers know there are eyasses on the nest. The eyasses “slice”, or in layman’s terms defecate. I recorded this twice on Sunday afternoon, so absolutely, positively the nest has hatched.
I started hawk watching after the Fifth Avenue nest had been taken down, so this will be my first real Fifth Avenue season. It will be fun to observe the nest that started serious hawk watching in New York City.
The hatch vindicates Marie Winn, the Park’s Department and NYC Audubon for their compromise with the co-op to put up the nest cradle. When the nest failed to produce offspring, everyone’s conjecture was it was most likely the cradle, and possibly Pale Male’s advanced age, but very few suggested it might have been Lola. So, to Marie Winn, the Park’s Department and NYC Audubon a very, belated thank you.
