Red-tail Nest Updates: The Search for a Hatch

Photograph by Julia Boehme
An immature Red-tail which some believe is last year's eyass from the 7th Avenue nest, also called Ziggy, perched on the Bethesda Fountain. Many thanks to Julia for sending it in.

Fifth Avenue: More of the same for Pale Male and Lola as the Pope and his security is still in the vicinity.

As of today at the Highbridge Nest: Rob Schmunk of http://bloomingdalevillage.blogspot.com/ ,

"Watched Martha for an hour. She's antsy, but no hatch yet at Highbridge."

The Riverside Nest: In response to the question, when did the Riverside 79th St. pair begin to brood? When I visited on March 11th, the formel was broody but was standing to fiddle with sticks and left the nest for a few minutes without coverage while she ate. By March 22, she was sticking tight. Therefore they began to brood between March 11th and March 22. And I'd say much closer to the former rather than the later date.

And also from Rob Schmunk as of today: More activity at Riverside but doesn't look like a hatch here either.

According to neighborhood hawk watcher Everett, Isolde is still brooding.

As for Stormin' Norman--well, he's still going around being Stormin' Norman and terrorizing the neighborhood.

Photograph: Donegal Browne

2005, Charlotte eating on the Trump Parc nest site.

Southern Hawk Watcher, Brett Odom, who works in an office directly across from Junior and Charlotte's nest of last season and possibly this season as well, observed Charlotte at the 888 Seventh Avenue nest site for 10-15 minutes. Suddenly when Brett looked again, he couldn't see her. Here's what his newest thoughts are--

Last year it was much easier to see behind the glass windows with binoculars. It was their first time using the nest and the windows were clean. Now with the nest being a year old, a dark brown hawk easily blends into the brown nest, and the feces and grime on the windows do not
help. Knowing this, I'm now not confident in my past observations that she (or Junior) are not incubating eggs.

It's quite possible that they have begun incubation and I just was not able to see them behind the window. And just as PM and Lola occasionally leave their nest unattended, it's quite possible Charlotte and Junior do the same thing and I just happen to see them together on those few occasions since the Essex sign is a favorite perch.

I'm now thinking that the only way I will be able to tell if they will be raising a family this season is if and when an egg or eggs hatch. A small white ball of fluff will be much easier to see behind the windows than a dark adult hawk.

Regards,

Brett Odom

http://web.mac.com/brettodom/

Hawkeye and Rose of the Fordham Nest

The Fordham nest site complete with two eyasses, 2007. The third eyass had fledged earlier in the day. Note the handy tree near the nest ledge. It's thought that eyasses return to this nest regularly after fledging.

From Chris Lyons, a major observer of Hawkeye and Rose at Fordham--

I've nothing major to report yet. As of today, Rose is still incubating, and Hawkeye is giving her breaks. It's roughly 28 days since she started sitting. No way of knowing when the first egg was laid. No indication of hatching, so far.

I'll be checking tomorrow, then Monday. I'd only start worrying if was no sign of a hatch by 4/25.

Last year, she seemed to start around the same time as this year. From the ground, I saw Rose clearly feeding young--without being able to see the young--on April 26th, 2007. They could have hatched days before that, and probably did. Unfortunately, it was several weeks later that Rich Fleisher found out that the roof of Dealy Hall could serve as a good vantage point to look down on the nest. I'm hopeful that this year we can confirm a hatch much sooner. But first we've got to have one.

Chris Lyons

***************************

And a word to Hillary, who dropped by the Hawk Bench, "Get in touch." The email is palemaleirregulars at yahoo.

Donegal Browne