I moved a small rose bush this morning. It's a sport of Cecile Bruner, just a little smaller flower. For over a year I have been trying to stop the bunnies and deer from eating it and I finally gave up and moved it. Any time it grew a few leaves and gained more than six inches in height, they would eat it back. It was actually trying to grow sideways to avoid the nibblers. It also had a lot of root competition from nearby trees. They know where I am watering regularly and send in the roots. I hope it will have a chance to grow now. It's near the front door. It's not a retreat exactly, more of a side step.
By far the most exciting thing happening this weekend is the fledging of the Washington Square hawks. The oldest of the three, Kiku, left the nest around 10:30 Friday morning. By the time I got home that afternoon, there were lots of pictures and videos of her flying around from cars to street then from building to building. This morning she has made her way back to the park from the side street she was exploring and her parents brought her food. Before many people were up this morning, however, the youngest Judson had fledged just before 5:30. No one seems to have captured it on film, but two members of the chat group witnessed his departure. Now the middle hatchling Archie is alone in the nest having lunch. She seems interested in leaving, practicing her jumping and flapping, but she hasn't taken the plunge yet. To see a hatchling fledge live... that would be mountain top (in honor of anniversary of Hillary's climb). I have only seen pictures and video of the previous fledges. It's the most amazing thing to see first flight. Everything depends on the success of the first landing.
Watching the NYU hawk cam is an experience that is hard to describe. I have watched since Mother's Day two years ago, when Violet and Bobby hatched one egg, Pip. I thought he was named for Dickens' hero until this year, when I learned that pipping is what they call the first breaking through of the egg tooth through the egg. After Pip was successfully independent, Violet succumbed to her leg injury, caused by a metal banding loop. Rosie appeared within a few days in Bobby's territory, and last year they raised two chicks, Boo and Scout.
This third nest has been entertaining as Bobby and Rosie mature as a couple and as parents. Bobby has always brought sticks to the nest, sometimes imperiling the chicks, and last year a plastic bag notoriously wrapped around a chick dangerously for several days. This year, Rosie has brought twigs with green leaves regularly. Kiku ate voraciously, Archie second voraciously, as we all worried that Judson wasn't getting enough food when in fact he was doing quite well, thank you very much. He always seemed to be off to the side looking the other way while Kiku and Archie did everything together. One morning, while the hatchlings were still quite young, Bobby brought a newspaper to the nest, and he and Rosie together worked it over and then under the chicks, until they were three little white downy heads bobbing around in a newspaper boat. A sense of play and fun has been the characteristic of this year's nest. Judson flew at the window repeatedly instead of across the ledge like the other two. It was his way-- always the other way.
I watch afternoons, nights, and weekends. I love to watch them sleeping in the nest. There is never audio and at night the camera changes from color to black and white. It is serene. Among the hundreds of people who watch, only a few make comments on the chat side bar, among them hawk expert John Blakeman who teaches us patiently about hawk biology and behavior. They are funny and friendly, warmly welcoming fellow birders, mostly from New York but also watching like me from afar-- New Jersey, Missouri, South Carolina, California, Boston, Hong Kong, Australia, and several of us in Florida. We tease each other and make terrible puns. When we get rowdy, our typing is atrocious. I feel as if I have about two dozen friends whom I have never met.
In previous years, we have had Roger Paw's photos from the park as well as the nest cam. Now we also have Urban Hawks' photos and live streaming from the park. GhentArt's screen captures on YouTube have kept me from being so forlorn at work, as I can watch his clips but not the nest cam during the day. It has become a much richer experience for those of us who can't walk around the park in person. Some day I hope to make a pilgrimage to Washington Square Park, join a meet up at the fledge bench, and thank them in person for making this experience possible and welcoming all of us into the company of the hawk watchers at the park.
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