It has been very hard this year to get details of the Manhattan nests.  I'm not traveling by public transportation, so I can only report first hand on the nests I can walk to from my home.  But I do have some news:

• Feedings have been seen in Inwood Hill Park.
• The Fort Washington nest was left unattended for an hour on a cold day raising concerns that it might have failed.
• Behavior changes make it likely that the St. John nest has hatched, but eyasses haven't been seen yet.
• Both of the Central Park nests, 350 Central Park West are at least a week overdue.  It is likely that both have failed.
• Tompkins Square Park has three eyasses and one even has pin feathers already.

The "regular birders" have been very good about social distancing in the Ramble.  Many of us live around the park, and we use the park to get our daily exercise while also bird watching. We keep our distance from one another and find areas of the park that are sparsely used to explore.

However, today a Yellow-breasted Chat created a large crowd with many photographers and birders, jockeying for position to get a look and possibly a shot of the bird.  Social Distancing went out the window for an attractive but not all that rare a bird.  A park employee reminded everyone to practice social distancing, but the crowd quickly regathered.

I didn't know most of the people in the crowd.  Early May attracts birders who don't normally bird Central Park.  They come with the migrants.

Even with masks and staying six feet apart, a crowd of twenty to thirty people is a perfect place, even outdoors for the COVID-19 virus to disperse.  But many of the observers were right on top of each other.  It was like a paparazzi scrum, fighting to get a shot of a member of the royal family.  Folks, it was just a Chat!

As birders, we should believe in science and follow social distancing guidelines.  No bird is worth risking your health or your families.   Please don't do this.

I've been hoping to see signs that the 350 Central Park West has hatched over the last week.  I made three visits, but came up empty each time.  I thought they should have hatched my now and I would have seen a feeding by now, but I'm a bit confused about when brooding started.

Frederic Lilien has generously made his film The Legend of Pale Male available to watch for free during the Covid-19 outbreak.  Enjoy the film!

The San Remo pair was working on the nest that just seems to blow away this afternoon.  They are so late.  One Manhattan nest has already hatched and may are due soon.  We'll see what happens.

I'm not certain of the timing, but I think due for a hatch at 350 Central Park West within the next week. I went up today and saw the male bring a squirrel and took over incubation duties, so the female could eat and explore.  I didn't see any signs of a feeding, so I don't think the nest has hatched yet.  It's a long hike for me to visit the next, but I'll make another visit at the end of the week.

An Eastern Red Bat has been roosting in the same bush for a few days in Central Park.  Tonight I stayed to watch it wake up.  The video is a bit long, but it's fascinating to see the bat slowly wake up.  It ended up flying right over my head when it left.

Pale Male and Octavia continue to show me how dull it is to watch a brooding nest.  Not much happens when I'm there.  I have hours of the same footage.  But here's some more of the same!

It will be interesting to see if the eggs hatch this year.  Low levels of rodenticides may led to infertility.  If this year's eggs don't had, should we worry that Octavia has repeated the problems Lola had?

While walking through Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan (59th and Fifth), I heard the male crying that he had food.  I couldn't find him, but heard him on the The Plaza Hotel.  He went down 58th and around the corner down Fifth, circling before landing on the roof of Bergdorf Goodman's.  He then circled and circled before landing on a very high building roof at 55th and Fifth.  He left the pigeon there before spending about ten minutes circling 9 West 57th.

I haven't seen the female for about a week.  Where, oh where is the nest!

The San Remo pair, after building a great nest on The Majestic Apartments a few blocks south, have returned to building a nest in the old location on the north tower of the San Remo.  As usual, the twigs brought up to this location blow off before a full  nest can be built.

Two updates:

• The Tompkins Square Park nest has hatched.  Details are on the Laura Goggin Photography blog.
• The San Remo pair is back to building a nest on the San Remo, abandoning The Majestic nest.

Governor's Island will remain closed in May, so it will be hard to figure out what's happening on the newly built nest.

Two updates:

1. Thanks to detective work by the Morningside Hawks blog, it has come clear that the male, that was rescued but died shortly there after from Morningside Park, was not the male from the St. John pair.  The pair is currently brooding.
2. The Washington Square Park male has found a new mate and they have been copulating on One Fifth Avenue.  The camera is currently offline, but it will be interesting to see if they try to nest.

A Belted Kingfisher was on the shore of The Pond in Central Park on Wednesday.  I caught up with it while it was eating a fish.  It took a lot of work to swallow the fish!

I saw Octavia roll her eggs on Saturday afternoon, while Pale Male stood guard on the Carlyle.

My daily social distancing walk took me around the southern areas of Central Park.  I first caught up with the two hawks around Grand Army Plaza.  One was on 9 West 57th and the other on a perch I just discovered, 520 Park Avenue (which is really 42 East 60th). 

I then saw both of the San Remo hawks on the San Remo.  The nest on The Majestic look big enough to stop an egg from rolling off, but it still isn't built properly.

Lastly, I saw and filmed Octavia leave the nest and Pale Male take over incubating duties.  Sorry about the poor video, the wind was bouncing my camera around.

I found a good vantage point to watch Octavia incubate her eggs, off the beaten track so I can safely practice social distancing.  Nothing much happened while I watched her for about an hour.

There have been hawks for years around Central Park South.  They've nested on the Trump Parc building and 888 Seventh Avenue with success.  Over the last few years, the Crown Building and the Plaza Hotel a bit further east have been where we thought there might be nests, but haven't been sure.

Today, I caught up with the current pair.  I heard the male, who looks young, cry out the "Honey, I have leftovers" call.  (She never responded.)  With the city being so quiet, I was able to find him on a third floor window of The Plaza Hotel.  He finished eating, and then started to attack his own reflection in the window, before getting caught in some pigeon spikes and then flying off.

He then made a number of loops around Grand Army Plaza, and perched on The Crown Building, the building at 58th and Fifth that has the Bergdorf's Mens Store, and 9 West 57th.  The female was perched there.  They both took off, but returned to 9 West 57th and copulated.

Like the last few years, no clue about the possible nest location.

Three updates:

• I was able to confirm the 350 Central Park West is brooding.
• Once again hawks have been seen bringing nesting material to the Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center, at 106th and Fifth Avenue.
• I saw the pair of hawks that hang out around Grand Army Plaza today, on various buildings, with one eating on The Plaza Hotel, and the pair copulating on 9 West 57th.

In the fog, I was able to watch the 350 Central Park nest and confirm the pair is brooding.  The nest seems better built than the last two years, and offers more protection.   I had to watch from between 96th and 97th Streets on Central Park West to see her.  Being so far way means camera shake and atmospheric distortion, but I was able to see the female brooding.

I caught up with the 927 Fifth Avenue nest as Octavia had returned and Pale Male was leaving the nest.

The background music is from an Accordion player, illegally using an amplifier to totally dominate the Model Boat Pond area.  Sadly, the COVID-19 outbreak is being used by many, mostly affluent park users to flaunt the park regulations.  There are hundreds of off leash dogs, bikes illegally on paths, dogs in the lakes and ponds, people jumping fences damaging the landscapes and motorized scooters in the park now.  While I expected some break down of the social order due to COVID-19, I wasn't expecting it to start with the most affluent New Yorkers.