Tonight, we couldn’t find the fledgling at St. John until close to sunset. It has been on St. Luke’s Hospital’s clock tower, and flew across to the Cathedral. We’ve yet to hear the fledgling cry out, and since it is using the building tops to perch, we don’t get the auditory clues we’d expect to get from robins, jays and mockingbirds. Keeping track of this fledgling is going to be a challenge.
A lot happened in Manhattan this past week:
Broadway Bridge Peregrines: Bonnie Talluto confirms the two eyasses are now fledglings.
Inwood Hill Park: Diane Schenker reports the nest has hatched. She can see at least one eyass, but can’t get a good count yet.
Highbridge Park: Mitchell Nusbaum reports the nest has fledged.
St. John the Divine: The surviving nestling fledged on Friday.
Riverside Park: The pair is sitting on their second clutch.
55 Water Street Peregrines: They’ve all fledged.
Early in the afternoon, the fledgling was impossible to find. One of the parents attempted to grab a young sparrow off a nest in a Cathedral window, but then flew off.
After the weather front went through, I went back to the Cathedral to find the fledgling coming off of a high area of St. Luke’s roof, towards the Cathedral. It misjudged the landing and returned to St. Luke’s. It did this about an hour later, attempting to land on the nest, again it misjudged and returned to St. Luke’s. Nature’s given the fledgling great innate flying skills, but it seems that instinct doesn’t cover landings and this needs to be learned.
I went down to see how the Riverside Pair was doing on Sunday and got to see an exchange between the parents.
This year, the fledgling is spending most of its time on St. Luke’s Hospital rather than on St. John the Divine.
The current father arrived when the Cathedral roof construction was in full swing, so he naturally perched on St. Luke’s rather than St. John. The father’s favorite perch on St. Luke’s also has a view of the large green at Columbia University, which had been home one winter to a young hawk. I think this switch in behavior by the father, is influencing the young fledgling to perch St. Luke’s.
Below are pictures of the fledgling’s first full day off the nest. A pair of Kestrel’s have been harassing the parents on St. Luke’s and are included in set of pictures.
I got my first glimpse of a RFK Bridge nest eyass this evening. From the feeding behavior of the mother, there are at least two eyasses. My guess is two, but it’s too early to tell for sure. It’s a strange season, when a new eyass is seen the same day as a fledge!
