I visited the Inwood Hill and Highbridge Park nests on Saturday.
Although I saw the male briefly at Inwood Hill, I had no luck seeing how the nest was doing. The tree leaves are so filled in now, it was impossible to see the nest. The Inwood Hill hawk nest was damaged earlier this year, and hawk watchers in the park believe the female laid a second set of eggs. The behavior of the parents lead everyone to believe there are eyasses, but we may not know until they fledge!
The Highbridge nest is doing fine. When I arrived the male was in a tree about 100 yards from the nest. The nest itself has at least two eyasses, both of whom look healthy. All of the pictures are from the Highbridge nest. Just like in Inwood, dense foliage makes looking into the nest difficult.
A visit today to Highbridge Park, found their nest to be active with two or three eyasses (baby hawks). Both parents were both engaged in keeping the eyasses warm and feeding them. This pair consistently has eyasses in mid-April, and they continue the tradition this year.
At the end of the video, note that the mother comes back with a wet set of chest feathers. (For those who might not believe this is Manhattan, in the video, you can see one of the Circle Line boats pass by!)
This year the hawks nesting in upper Highbridge Park have moved their nest lower and a few blocks north. If you're a good hill climber, you can get a decent look into the nest. This area seems to be a great spot for Red-tailed Hawks even though it is surrounded by highways and apartment buildings.
The female stayed on the nest the entire time I was up at the nest. Any pictures of a hawk off the nest are of the male.
I went up to Highbridge Park to see if the eggs had hatched after visiting Inwood Hill Park. (At Inwood, I saw both parents, but couldn't tell if the chicks had hatched yet.)
After a long wait, the female got up and started feeding. The eyasses are still small, and I couldn't get an accurate count. There is only a hint of down in one of the pictures, but the videos clearly show the feeding.
From north to south, we have the following confirmed nesting sites in Manhattan this year: Inwood Hill Park, Highbridge Park (back to the old location, which should be safer than last year's location), Lower Riverside Park (also in a new and safer location), Fifth Avenue and 888 Seventh Avenue. I visited all of them this weekend. They all seem to be in good shape, with chicks expected within the next few weeks.
Some nests have changed from last year.
There is no sign of a nest below 14th Street, although there have been reports of hawks downtown all winter, including Tompkins Square Park, the World Trade Center construction site, the Court Houses around Center Street, Seward Park, Washington Square Park and the Greenway.
Last year's nest on Houston Street is not being used again this year. The male from last year's nest died of Fronce and while hawks have been seen on the Lower East Side all winter, no signs of a new nest has been found.
The St. John the Divine's pair have both been seen recently but further uptown. Construction continues on the church and they may have moved but no one has found a new nest location. This one is a real mystery.
The Shepard Hall, City College nest looks bigger according to reports, but nest looks unoccupied. The hawks may be nesting somewhere nearby.
Here are pictures of four nests from this weekend:
I spent the early afternoon looking at the Riverside Red-tailed Hawk pair on Saturday. There nest is just off the Hudson River near 8st Street and looks great. Last year they laid eggs around mid-March, so the female should start sitting on the nest soon.
Other nests in Manhattan are doing well. Inwood Hill Park, Highbridge Park, St. John the Divine and 5th Avenue nests are doing fine. The Highbridge nest is back to its old spot.
The Central Park South pair is still there but I don't have any details about their nest. The Houston female lost her mate last year, and may be nesting on the ConEd plant around 14th Street. The pair that was around the City College campus remains a mystery.
Sightings of hawks this winter around the north end of Riverside Park and around the Court House buildings on Center Street make these locations possibilities for new nests this year.
When leaving Riverside Park, check out the American Kestrels that have a scrape at 80th and Broadway. One of them is usually on the building south of Zabar's or on the church at 79th and Broadway.
The two Highbridge youngsters were alert and active Sunday afternoon. They're at that "toddler" stage where they use their wings to crawl around and flop down a lot.
I didn't see any eyasses while up at Highbridge Park today, but the female and male spent over twenty minutes looking into the nest. There were two carcasses on the nest, and the mother never got fully down into the nest. So, I would suspect that either hatching was in progress or had just occurred. I think I'll go back on Sunday to see what's up.
The Highbridge nest hasn't hatched yet. I went up hoping it would be Manhattan's first nest with eyasses, but not yet.
The female was sitting when I arrived. The male arrived on a nearby tree being chased by Blue Jays. He eat HIS meal in sight of the female, but didn't bring her any food or give her a break while I was there!
The new Highbridge Park nest is doing well. On Saturday, when I arrived the female was sitting on the nest. After about an hour the male arrived, and gave the female a twenty minute break.
The female sitting on the nest.
Rolling the eggs?
The male arrives
The male on the left arriving to give the female a break.
The male on the nest.
The female returns.
She has to nudge him to get him to give up his spot.
The male exiting the nest.
The female rearranging some twigs.
Glenn Alvarez wrote me on Friday to say that he had found the new location of the Highbridge Park nest. I went up and saw it on Saturday. It looks to be in a great new location.
Of the eight known nests in Manhattan, here's their status this week...
5th Avenue, Lola sitting on the eggs.
888 Seventh Avenue, Lots of mating and twigging. Not sure if brooding has started.
St. John the Divine, Not sitting yet.
Highbridge Park, New nest location. Female sitting on eggs.
Inwood Hill Park, New nest location. Female sitting on eggs.
South Riverside Park, Female sitting on eggs.
Houston Street, Female sitting on eggs. The male picked up earlier in the month downtown, turns out NOT to be from this nest.
Shepard Hall, City College, New nest. Not sure of status.
And in the Bronx, Chris Lyons reports Rose is sitting on the Fordham University nest.
I went up to Highbridge Park today, and found the "window" from the path that provides a view from below. (Thanks to James and Robert for directions.) I arrived to what looked to be an empty nest but knew from the angle that the eyasses might just be on the other side of the nest.
What's this? The movement came from twenty feet above the nest.
A youngster.
Now are you a brancher or a fledgling? You're still in the same tree as your nest.
One of the parents kept circling over the nest in a pattern that seemed to say "Follow me, Follow me."
Another fly over by the parent.
An eyass appears on the nest. So, two are accounted for.
Then a second eyass appears. So, all there young ones are accounted for.
They get close for a bit, two heads stacked.
The eyass looks up at its older sibling on the branch.
And our brancher keeps looking at the parent circling overhead.
So, you didn't let me know if you were just a brancher or real fledgling. I do know one thing for sure, you aren't going to be in this tree next weekend!
Views of the Highbridge nest are disappearing as the trees leaf out. I almost slid down the steep hill near the nest taking these obscured shots.
Both parents were off the nest as I took these pictures. These may have to be my last pictures of the Highbridge nest this year.
The leaves are coming out and it's becoming harder to find a spot to photograph the Highbridge nest. It might become impossible in a few weeks.
The mother (just peaking out on the left), and the three eyasses. I had only seen two tiny eyasses last week, so the third was a nice surprise.
All looked healthy.
They were fed during my visit.
The father arrives. He's in the middle. (The leaf cover would blow and block the view, creating the soft blur.)
The feeding over, the father let the mother have a break and let the eyasses enjoy the sun.
I went up to Inwood Hill Park, in addition to Highbridge yesterday. Although the female was sitting much higher on the nest, I didn't see any baby hawks. Neither did Robert B. Schmunk who was up there at the same time.
On Saturday evening, I saw that Alice Danna had also been up to Inwood Hill Park (but earlier in the day), and had seen two eyasses with one of the rangers (via Donna Browne's Palemaleirregulars blog.)
So, I gave it a second try on Sunday and was able to confirm Alice's report. I didn't see two eyasses, but the mother's behavior would make me believe that there was more than the one eyas.
This makes the two "old school" tree nests in Manhattan a success, while we don't yet know the fate of the three "new school" building nests, 5th Avenue, St. John the Divine and 888 7th Avenue. So the current score is Old School 2 - New School ?.
Below are pictures of the Inwood Hill Park female and her eyas(ses?) There would be no sign of an eyas and then a head would pop up for a few seconds. It was impossible to tell if it was the same eyas or multiple eyasses.
I'm happy to report that the Highbridge Red-tailed Hawk nest has at least two eyasses.
Highbridge Male
Highbridge Female
An eyas being fed.
The second eyas is visible on the right.
In playing back multiple frames, it was possible to see that there were two independent chicks and not just one bird.
I received two great emails. The first was a note from James O'Brien that he ran into someone who can see the 888 Seventh Avenue nest. This person said Charlotte was sitting on eggs. It might turn out that the nest isn't behind the vents after all. This makes 888 the fourth confirmed nest in Manhattan.
The second note was from Glenn Alvarez, who wrote that Highbridge Park has an active Red-tailed Hawk nest. This is the fifth confirmed Manhattan nest for the season!
James O'Brien had seen the nest this winter, from the lower level of Highbridge Park. Glenn's email confirmed the nest was active and gave us the hints to find it from Amsterdam Avenue. Like the Highbridge nest, it may become impossible to find once the trees get leaves.
Highbridge Park is located along the Harlem River on Manhattan's eastern northern tip. It is a long, thin park of about 120 acres. For information about the park, see the Park's Department website.
I went up after work to take some photographs of the nest. I only saw one Red-tail, who I assumed was the female since it was sitting nest for over 90 minutes. I didn't see its mate.
