Happy Earth Day! Tompkins Square red-tailed hawks, Christo and Amelia, have welcomed at least one youngster to the world this week. Hatching activity was first observed on Easter Sunday, and the parents have been seen feeding several times a day since. It's still too early to see the chick(s), or to know how many there are, so we look forward to being surprised over the next couple of weeks.
On Monday, we caught Christo as he brought a headless rat to the nest where Amelia was tucked in.
After some coaxing, she got up. We've noted she's an extremely dedicated stay-at-nest mom and will not leave her eggs or chicks easily, even if Christo shows up with food or to relieve her.
In this video, you can see both parents doing some feeding. Christo is on the left and Amelia is on the right. Perhaps this indicates there are two chicks?
On Wednesday, we arrived just as Christo showed up with lunch (rat).
Amelia didn't want to get up just yet.
It was only after Christo took the rat away to eat himself that Amelia got up to feed the young some food that had been stashed in the nest. At the time, the park was full of people at the time who were celebrating 420 Day.
In this video, Amelia feeds the hatchling(s), who are hidden just behind the edge of the nest. Note how far she has to bend into the nest to reach the chicks.
The music in the background of the video is a live performance by the inimitable Pinc Louds.
Later, we tried a different camera angle as Christo and Amelia served dinner. It will be several days before we can see anything more than this, especially as the tree blooms and the leaves block the view. This will provide shade for the hawks, though, as summer heats things up.
The presence of flies is a good indicator there is food being stored in the nest.
On Thursday, we arrived to find Amelia taking a break from brooding to stretch and preen. In doing so, she revealed her brood patch, which looks like a hole in the feathers on her chest.
After a few yoga stretches, Amelia took off for a short flight around the park to stretch her wings. She returned to the nest about two minutes later.
Although we cannot see into this nest which is high in a tree, you can observe the activities at another Manhattan red-tailed hawk nest on this new live camera at Columbia University. You can read more about the details of this nest site, which is on a fire escape, and learn more about the lucky student who is playing host to this hawk family, here.
In more eggciting hawk news, Cornell's Big Red and Arthur have four eggs, two of which are in the process of hatching at the time of this post. If all goes well, there will be four little hawklets to watch on the Cornell Hawk cam in Ithaca, New York.
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