Central Park South Change Of Pace
Until today watching the Central Park South Hawks nesting from the street has been like watching paint dry.
5:47 p.m. A light colored head appears. What's Junior (the male) doing on the nest?
6:00-6:15 p.m. After some movement around the nest he looks like he's trying to cool off a bit. Not your typical egg sitting behavior.
6:15 p.m. Charlotte returns with a gray squirrel. Unusual behavior, since Junior has spent the last month feeding her.
6:18 He quickly returns. Charlotte is in the back of the nest out of sight.
6:23 After both disappearing to the back of the nest, they both reappear. Junior then takes off for the evening.
6:30-7:00 p.m. Charlotte spends a lot of time out of sight, but also spends a lot of time at the edge of nest.
7:40 She settles down for the evening.
All of these behavior changes could be a sign that the eggs have hatched or are about to. We'll know the answer in a few days.
Update: I received an email from Ben Cacace who was digiscoping (using a digital camera with a telescope) from a nearby hotel at the same time I was photographing from the street. From the higher view, there appeared to be an egg in the nest. So, we'll need to wait a bit before passing out the cigars.