Question & Response

The three intact eggs retrieved from the 2006 nest at 927 Fifth Avenue before being taken to Ward Stone in Albany for analysis.



Kathy Guchone wrote:

Hi Marie ,

Happy Holidays to you and to all the NYC watchers.

I have a question regarding the spikes in the new nest cradle. Does anyone know if the new spikes are the same length as the spikes in the old, removed nest. If the new ones are longer maybe this was done on purpose to discourage the hawks from producing babies and perhaps eventually moving on. Maybe this sounds paranoid on my part but couldn't this have been a more subtle way the the coop people could have gotten their way after all. As you can tell I think very little of these coop people.

Thank you for your time

Kathy Guchone

Dear Kathy,

And a very Happy New Year to you!

As for your question: There are no new spikes. When the nest was taken down the super, for some unaccountable reason, saved the wooden strip with the spikes. Later, after the building relented, this same strip was attached to the new "cradle" that was put up on the ledge for the hawks, .
The coop was terrible to take the nest down in the first place, but I don't see how they could have done anything to hurt the hawks' chances for success once the crisis was resolved.
Of course it IS possible that the subsequent nest failures had something to do with the "cradle". But that can't be seen as a deliberate thing on the part of the coop. In any event, the spikes are not to blame. Pale Male had ten successful years with those same spikes at the base of his nest.

PS A clincher: When the eggs were removed for analyses last spring all three were intact. If the spikes had damaged the eggs then the eggs would have been...well, damaged.