Fledging flash!

Just got a call from Rik Davis, faithful hawkwatcher [and hawk photographer] at the Hawk Bench.

The first fledge at the Fifth Avenue nest!!! Successful!!!!

The first nestling took its leave sometime before Rik got to the Model-boat pond--that is, before 11 a.m. this morning. Subsequently it was located in a tree near the top of the hill going from the MBP to 72nd Street and Fifth Ave. and photographed there by Lincoln Karim

The photo here is of Charles Kennedy, hawkwatcher extraordinaire, Central Park naturalist and our friend who died on October 20, 2004. At every landmark in the cycle of the Fifth Avenue redtails-- mating, nest building, incubation, hatching and today, the first fledge--we all think of Charles.