Over the last few days, the parents have switched from feeding the eyasses pigeon, to just delivering sparrows one at a time to each eyass. It’s the logical transition from feeding them to getting them ready to eat on their own. I couldn’t stay long but they’re looking very close to fledging.
The West End Peregrines eyasses look to be in their final week on the nest. (I’m going away on Friday, so I hope to see them fledge before I leave for two weeks.)
The parents are hunting in view of the eyasses and seem to be showing them “what to do”. The parents behavior switched as soon as the eyasses lost their downy feathers.
The eyasses are also flapping their wings more and have begun to make short flights. The tower has four main ledges, and now rather than run inside the tower to change ledges, they make short flights to get to the next one.
This is my first time spending more than one or two visits at a Peregrine Falcon nest, so I’m not sure what happens next. It’s a lot of fun observing behavior and seeing what comes next.
One of the eyasses at the 86th and West End Peregrine Falcon nest wouldn’t stop crying for food today. It just cried and cried. However, it looked as though it had a full crop, so it seemed like it was crying for no good reason!
The adult male was on guard duty while I was there, although he did hunt a number of times. He caught a pigeon, but the bird escaped from him before he could kill it.
As I was packing up all four eyasses were visible.
I got to Riverside Drive and 72nd Street and after a few minutes heard lots of American Robin alarm calls, which led me to one of the newly fledged hawks from West 72nd Street nest. I had it for about ten minutes before I lost track of it. I continued to hear robin calls, but couldn’t find the fledgling. One of the parents flew over the calling robins, and then perched on 344 West 72nd Street.
I was about to give up for the afternoon when I saw a fledgling cross Riverside Drive and perch on a building at 311 West 72nd Street. It moved around making small flights between chimneys and vents, before flying across the street to 300 West 72nd Street.
After about 15 minutes, it perched on 305 West 72nd Street on a window ledge. After about 30 minutes, a parent brought it a snack.
The Terence Cardinal Cooke Red-tailed Hawks are doing great. Early this afternoon I saw a feeding and got to watch the eyasses “jump flap” and explore the ledge. Last year, before the single eyass fledged, it flew from tower to tower and “branched” using the top for of TCC. I hope this gets repeated this year, but with three eyasses.
I was near the nest so I swung by to see if it had fledged yet. It hadn’t as of Thursday morning. They eyasses were hiding under the camera. I suspect the nest is full of flies and they’re staying far from it is a good idea.
