Window of Opportunity

**********Photo by Lincoln Karim**********

I posted this before, but I think I'll post it again, since the "window of opportunity" has opened:

According to C.R. Preston's account of the Red-tailed Hawk in the authoritative text Birds 0f North America:
"Young typically leave the nest for the first time about 42 - 46 days after hatching."


The Birders' Handbook gives a fledging window of 45-46 days for Red-tailed Hawks.


The first egg of the Trump Parc nest hatched on June 3. The second egg hatched on June 4. [A third egg did not hatch.] Unlike at the Fifth Ave nest where we had to guess when exactly the eggs hatched -- we couldn't look directly into the nest there -- here we can pinpoint the exact day of hatching. From the 65th floor of our gracious friends' apartment in a building with a direct view of the nest from the south-west, we were able to see the actual hatch or something very close to it.


Forty-two days from June 3 brings us to JULY 15. That's when the window of opportunity for fledging opens. It closes on JULY 19.


Note: The fledging windows given in biologists' accounts are usually accurate. The first fledge is very likely to occur between 7/15 and 7/19.