As promised, we wanted to tell you the story of the first fledgling (aka the wayward fledgling). This bird was the first to take flight but has had some difficulty since leaving the nest.
First, on Sunday evening, it suddenly attempted to return to the nest but missed, crash landing on the AC directly below.
It spent the evening on that AC, while Mom and the youngest slept on the nest just above.
The next day, it remained on the AC for most of the day, crying quite loudly. This was quite heart-wrenching, especially as the parents stayed away. Faith Zuckerman, the kind owner of this AC, took some shots of it from inside:
Faith said that, in addition to panting and crying, the hawk was knocking on the window. She had an expert come check on the hawk and was told it was physically ok. So all we could do was wait.
Finally, at 3:26pm EST, the hawk took flight. We call it Fledge 2.0.
The wayward fledge landed on the church steeple’s clock, placing itself at 5 o’clock. Onlookers said that the hawk actually moved the hour hand…who knew hawks also had the ability to manipulate time?!
The hawk was quite docile hanging out on the clock.
From here, things went haywire again. The bird was heard crying, then spotted, again on the 12th floor of Ageloff. Only this time, it was on a window ledge closer to 4th St.
The hawk was agitated and started clawing at the screen, while flapping its wings. This was one of the most perilous, nerve-wracking moments we’ve witnessed so far:
The wayward fledgling finally calmed down, slept for a bit, then took off some time during the night.
TwoHawksNYC 