I believe all of the New York City Red-tailed Hawks babies have fledged, the last ones being the two in Prospect Park.  I'm going do some flying of my own and will be on vacation until July 9th.

The second and the last eyas on the Astoria Park nest, left this morning and headed to a park north of the bridge.  (Thanks to Jules Corkery for letting me know about the fledge.)

When I got there this evening it was still there with its mother watching over it.

The mother.

The mother.

I arrived to a quiet afternoon in Astoria.  One of the parents was on the bridge and the eyas still on the nest was making practice jumps around the nest and up to a bracket on the bridge.

The quiet was short lived however.  The fledgling appeared in a tree south of the tennis courts.  It was immediately mobbed by two noisy Blue Jays.

They kept attacking and dive bombing.

The fledgling lost its grip and slid down the branch.

It ended up in a smaller tree.

The Blue Jays kept at it.

At some point the fledgling had enough and flew south to a residential block of Astoria.  I walked around the block looking for it, but couldn't find it.  I think it was on a flat roof that wasn't visible from the street.  With the excitement over, I returned to Manhattan.

The 888 Seventh Avenue fledgling continues to do well in the park.  A good flyer, she still has problems with branching. 

The father arrived with a nestling for the fledgling's lunch.  I suspect the nestling was a baby robin, but can't be sure.

The father and the fledgling traded trees for a few minutes.

Until they ended up on the same tree branch.  The father is on the left and the fledgling on the right.

The fledgling ends up dropping the meal, and eats it on the ground.

It gets eaten slowly.  The fledgling seem in no rush.

The fledgling has been banded.  Despite protests by some bloggers against bands, they do not bother the birds.  They allows scientists to study migration patterns and if this bird is injured give those giving help access to its past medical records.

While the fledgling was on the ground, the father kept watch.

I had to leave, but the fledgling continues to be well looked after by its parents.  It should spend the summer in the park learning to hunt and fly, and leave us in late August or early September.

The Central Park South hawks were having a relaxed time Saturday evening.  The fledgling was in a tree, taking it easy and the parents were flying about the south end of the park.  They must be enjoying the weekend after such a hard week!

The Astoria Park nest had its first fledge on Saturday around 2 p.m.  The fledgling went to the equipment depot under the bridge near the nest.  It was the safest place to fledge.  Good choice young one.

While I was there it spent its time hopping from truck to truck.

Caution, flying hawk.

There was a Blue Jay that would come by every ten minutes.

It hit the young hawk a few times.

The first day at school can be tough.

The eyas still on the nest looked on and seemed ready to join its sibling.

One of the parents landed in a tree near the nest...

... and then went to the north side of the bridge.

So, another successful nest in New York City.

Enjoy life off the nest!

I got to Central Park in the early evening after visiting Inwood Hill Park.  I had struck out trying finding the hawk family in Inwood, so I was hoping for better luck at the Heckscher Ballfields.

Our well looked after 888 Seventh Avenue fledgling. 

Relaxing north of the Baseball Fields.

One lone American Robin helped me find her.

The mother came and we saw the father fly north.  She left and returned with a pigeon.  It was hard to tell who actually caught the prey.

The mother left the food on branch, called for the youngster to come for dinner and left.

The parent then flew around the Time Warner Building in Columbus Circle. It was windy, and she gained speed and height quickly.

The mirrored building seems to fascinate this pair.  New York City Audubon has been working to minimize bird deaths from building collisions.  This spring they published an excellent guide for building owners and architects, Bird-Safe Building Guidelines, as part of their Project Safe Flight initiative.

Here the mother rests on the new Zeckendorf building.

The fledgling's dinner for tonight was a pigeon.

Although the pigeon is much smaller than the fledgling, at times it seemed huge.

The parents are both efficient eaters, but this fledgling is still learning.

She was eating next to a Baseball dugout, and the team playing in Red uniforms were named the Hawks!

The mother on the roof of the new Zeckendorf buildings at 62nd and Central Park West.  This building didn't exist two years ago, so we're learning what's changed this year.

Both parents ended up on near the roof of the N.Y.A.C. (New York Athletic Club).  This is the first time, I've seen them perching there.

The mother on the railing.

What a nice way to start the summer, with fledglings playing all over New York City.

Our Central Park South fledgling is a good flyer for being so young.  She has managed to make it to the southern edge of the Sheep Meadow, and to each corner of the Heckscher Ballfields.

The fledgling.

A young squirrel was dinner for one of the parents.

The fledgling.

The Mother.

The Father.

I think that's a Baltimore Oriole being unhappy by the adult male's appearance.

Yes, your child did make the news.

The fledgling settling in for the night.

Getting ready to go to bed as the last baseball games got rained out on the Heckscher Ballfields.

Wednesday started out as a foggy, rainy morning in the southern portion of Central Park with a fledgling who spent the night alone, and ended as a sunny evening, with a family reunited. 

My earlier posts detail the morning and the reunion. It had been found by its parents earlier in the afternoon and noisy reunion was followed by a feeding.

I got back into the park around 6 p.m.  The fledgling was in a small tree behind a baseball diamond.  The fledgling was hopping from branch to branch learning how to maneuver around a tree. 

After awhile the Blue Jays found it, and the fledgling yelled for help.

In response for the cry for help, the father came quickly.  We hadn't seen him in the nearby trees, but he must have been watching over his child. 

He did something amazing.  He acted as a target for the Blue Jays, drawing them away from his little girl.  He moved from tree to tree until he had moved the jays safely away from the fledgling.

I had to leave the park to join some friends for dinner, but left with a warm feeling, that a hawk family was back to normal in the park I love, Central Park.

Thank you to Bobby Horvath and all of the Urban Park Rangers who made this possible.

Charlotte (the mother) and the fledgling of the Central Park South/888 Seventh Avenue pair reunited around 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon.  It was noisy affair with lots of calling by both of them.  They were seen flying off together.

Later, the parents caught a squirrel for the youngster around 4:45.

There are still some concerns that everything will go back to normal, and the fledgling needs to become people shy after all of the handling, but everything so far has been positive.

The 888 Seventh Avenue fledgling has been returned to the park. It was placed in a quiet fenced-in area.  It is two blocks into the park and about five blocks from the nest.  The parents haven't found the fledgling yet and still seem to be searching in the blocks around the nest.  Hopefully, the young fledgling will get hungry soon and start to beg for food so the parents can find it.

(For those who aren't New Yorkers, the nest site is in a horrible location. It's far from the park, has a narrow ledge and is very high.  When fledglings are returned to their parents, one would usually put the fledgling as close as possible to the nest.  In this case however, 57th and Seventh Avenue is too dangerous an area, and returning the bird to the actual nest would require a window washing rig.  It could also result in second poor fledge attempt.  So, we have this less than ideal situation. Nature can be a harsh mistress.)

I arrived at the nest a little after sunrise to find the fledgling in the tree it has roosted in last night.

The park's department has assigned an Urban Park Ranger to keep an eye on the fledgling for a few days.  The ranger is Rob Mastrianni.  He was responsible for the rescue of the Inwood Hill Park female, who had two wonderful eyasses this spring.  He's a great choice for the job.

Now, just hope and pray that nature will get these parents and their fledgling back on course.

These two wonderful parents...

...haven't found their girl yet.  (She's a she.)

May they be reunited...

...over the next few days...

...and resume their roles of parents and child.

The Astoria Park eyasses are 45 days old, so they should be fledging soon.  These pictures were taken on Monday.

Look, I can stretch.

I can fly, well almost.

We get to explore Astoria soon!

It was close to bed time.

For the parents too.  They soon moved off to roosts for the night.

Everyone was accounted for on Sunday, but it took some real effort to find everyone.  The father was on a low branch behind the church playground along Morningside Drive.  Above him was one of the fledglings.

The father.

The father.

A fledgling.

Looking good, but still shy.

The father then caught and gutted a rodent.  He went off with it, but I'm not sure who he gave it to.

He didn't give it to the one fledgling we had found however.

The mother on 301 W 110th.

We then found the outgoing fledgling on the north side of the Cathedral.

As I was leaving to go home, a passer-by helped me find the third fledgling at the base of Morningside Drive above a construction trailer.

I spent more time up at Riverside Church on Sunday.  The fledglings spent lots of time flying between the God Box (Interfaith Center) and the Church.  The ones I could photograph were mostly the parents.

On Friday, about an hour after I had left, Robert found the third fledgling.  On Saturday, I was able to see all three too.

The mother.

There was one precocious fledgling, and then two who fledged later.  This is one of the two reluctant ones.

This is the other reluctant one.  Both seemed much shyer than the outgoing first fledgling.

This is the first to fledge.

Riverside Church Peregrine Falcon's have three or four fledglings.  Its hard to figure out the exact number.  Here are some pictures from Friday of the fledglings and their parents.

I'm just catching up with posting images from the weekend.  These are from Friday.

The Father.

One of the later fledglings.

The Father.

The first Fledgling.

I'll have more pictures up later, but I wanted to quickly share portraits of our three new St. John the Divine fledglings...

The fledgling from the 888 Seventh Avenue nest is in the caring hands of Bobby Horvath.  Details of the fledglings troubles in the plaza of the Ziegfeld Theater, can be found on the websites of the various New York City newspapers.  A fledgling's first few days on the ground can be full of troubles.

Bobby Horvath is a licensed rehabber and will do what is best for the fledgling.  He runs a rescue center on Long Island, Wildlife in Need of Rehab and Rescue, Inc.

His phone number has been placed on the www.palemale.com website along with some very negative and untrue statements about Mr. Horvath.  Please don't harrass Mr. Horvath.  He's got the best interests of the fledgling at heart.