Threat to the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawk nest – October 5th, 2018

There is new construction and renovation being done on the building that houses the Hawk nest (Bobst Library) and I am concerned that the workers will cover access to the nest or at the very least, encroach upon the nest with their nearby activities.

The Hawks routinely visit the nest throughout the winter in order to bring in new nesting material or to generally check on the nest. Their nest fortification amps up in February as they ready the nest for egg-laying in March. According to the permit filed with the Department of Buildings, this work is scheduled to be completed in March of next year.

According to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, private building owners may, with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s permission, remove or relocate a Hawk nest. So a big question is what are NYU’s plans for the nest while this renovation work is going on?

Closing off access to the nest will no doubt distress the Hawks and leave them with few options. The Hawks could abandon their current nest and try to build a new nest elsewhere either along the park or in a different location altogether. The risks with them doing that are abundant.

For example, residents or building managers (unaware of laws protecting Hawk nests) could destroy any nest in progress on say an air conditioner or fire escape. If the Hawks rebuild overlooking a new area that poisons rats, they and/or their offspring could easily be killed.

Here is how the scaffolding rigging appeared on Wednesday, October 3rd (the nest is pointed out with the arrow):

And here is how the scaffolding rigging looked today, with supports along each side of the nest window:

Extended view of the rigs:

Right now there is no telling when the workers will affix the scaffolding to these supports and work on the area around the nest.

A picture of the scaffolding at the east end of the facade with windows covered in advance:

Workers are doing similar work across the street from the park at One Fifth Avenue:

I wrote to NYU President Andrew Hamilton and key NYU Spokesman John Beckman about my concerns on Tuesday, October 2nd. As you will see in my email (quoted below) to them, I showed instances of the Hawks visiting their nest in September and October of this year. However, below are more examples of the Hawks visiting their nest throughout the winter months:

November, 2017: https://rogerpaw.com/2017/11/bobby-visits-nest-and-catches-rodent/

December, 2017: https://rogerpaw.com/2017/12/bobby-visits-nest-perches-with-sadie/

January, 2017: https://rogerpaw.com/2017/01/hawks-visit-nest-pall-around-in-high/

February, 2018: https://rogerpaw.com/2018/02/bobby-and-sadie-work-on-the-nest-grab-sticks-together-february-15th-2018/

I have yet to hear back from anyone at NYU. Since it had been 3 days since I wrote to them with no response, I reached out to Audubon’s NYC office, Earthjustice, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, WINORR (Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation), a friend who is a member of the Parks Department, and the American Bird Conservancy today and conveyed generally the same as what I wrote above and invited them to write to NYU as well.

Below is the bulk of what I emailed to NYU on October 2nd:

Dear Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Beckman,

I have serious concerns for the Red-tailed Hawk nest because of the current work (specifically, Permit Number 140801327-01-EW-OT) being done by Skyline Restoration to the Bobst Library facade.

It is quite probable that the Hawks will get disturbed by the close proximity of the work and abandon the nest they’ve maintained for the last 8 years. The closer the construction scaffolding and work gets to the nest, the higher the risk of this happening.

Although the Hawks are not expected to lay eggs until next March (when the permit is currently scheduled to expire), they visit the nest regularly throughout the autumn and winter months as they fortify the nest with new sticks and material.

In the last couple of weeks alone I and other visitors to the park have seen the Hawks bring sticks to the nest to fortify the nest structure multiple times.

Here is a post (with video and pictures) from as recently as September 24th documenting when Bobby, the male Hawk, was observed visiting and bringing a stick to the nest:
https://rogerpaw.com/2018/09/bobby-sadie-hawks-in-trees-nest/

This kind of nest fortification will continue up to and well after next year’s egg-laying.

For example, below is documentation of nest fortification from last October: https://rogerpaw.com/2017/10/bobby-visits-the-nest-turkey-vultures-visit-the-park-sadie-perches-high-october-30th-2017/

I know that you are sensitive to the protection of the Hawks’ environment so I ask that you please consider ways to prevent the crews from encroaching much closer to the nest.

Please respond soon with your thoughts as I and thousands of other NYU Hawk ‘fans’ from around the world would hope that you take all the necessary precautions to not disturb the Hawks.

Should you wish to reach out to Mr. Hamilton, his email address is andrew.hamilton@nyu.edu. This is a very serious issue and could impact the Hawks and future broods depending on what decisions are made. If you do write to him, please request that NYU not have the nest blocked from the Hawks’ access and for NYU to do their utmost to ensure the nest (and the Hawks) are not disturbed.

***

Today’s Hawk outing was in part successful as I did see who I think was Bobby circling over the western side of the park:

He circled higher and higher:

He then dove down and looked like he was flying easily to 7th Avenue or even further (a few blocks west of the park):

Update: Response from NYU several days after my email to them.