The last eyass to fledge at Tompkins Square Park was joined by a sibling on the nest for about 45 minutes on Tuesday evening.

This generally doesn’t happen.  Once an eyass leaves the nest, it generally ignores it.  Experienced hawk watchers when asked if the fledglings will be returning to or sleeping on the nest usually say something like “The nest is really just a nursery, don’t expect the fledglings to return to it.”

But this evening after seeing a parent pick at food on the nest, a fledgling decided to check out the nest and look for food.  It also spent some time flapping and jumping, as if to say to its yet to fledge sibling, “here’s how it’s done”.

The eyass who hasn’t fledged, who has been doing a lot of jump flapping, was finally seen rapidly beating its wings and hovering tonight.  A good sign that it is mature enough to go when ever it decides to “leave home”.  The gap between the first and the last to fledge is now at eight days, a time period much larger anyone would have expected.