Conclusive Evidence

New Mom on nest== 5/19/11
photo courtesy of PaleMale.com

An e-mail from Kentaurian, a friend from the old days at the Hawk Bench, removes all doubt: there are chicks in the nest!

Kentaurian writes:

We have good news - today, Friday 20 May 2011, the female Red Tailed Hawk  at 74th & Fifth Avenue was seen feeding something inside the nest at three  separate times from 4:30pm to 7:00pm and moving stashed food from the "north"  side of the nest to the "south" side before one of those feedings. Between  feedings, she continued brooding deep in the nest and mostly out of sight.  Some of the witnesses beside myself were Margrit, Katherine, Stella and  Samantha (aka Sam) along with several visitors to NYC who were passing by.  While I was the last to leave, I saw Pale Male deliver fresh food to the  nest at 7:30pm and place it on the "north" rim. The female lifted her head  during the delivery but soon hunkered back down inside the nest.

Tomorrow: John Blakeman assesses the past and present situation at the Fifth Ave. nest

PS We won't be able to see any sign of the white fluffy chicks for at least a week or ten days. For now they are hidden in the depths of the large nest.They need to grow and be able to raise their heads to look out at the world. We can only follow the parents' behavior for now as they bring food to the nest and feed the chicks.