Does your heart feel icy this morning? Just gaze at these hawk babies that hatched over the weekend on a fire escape between West 71st and 72nd streets and you will melt into a puddle.
Here, we’ll make the picture bigger so you can really gaze into their eyes.
Jimmy O’Kelly snapped the shots of the birds on his fire escape, and sent the description below.
“A beach chair was left on the fire escape and they must have thought to use it in order to save time from building an actual nest! In hindsight, my girlfriend, Vivian, and I probably would have taken the beach chair away but she had already laid the eggs so we knew best to leave it alone. We read that it took about 5 weeks to hatch so we waited and checked on her from time to time while not distracting her. We discovered the newborns this past Sunday and we did our best to capture some quick photos.”
Here’s the family before the eggs hatched.
Read a gripping account of the less-cute aspects of living with hawks on your fire escape.
This is my favorite thing I have ever seen on this, or possibly any, website. Besides the extreme cuteness, it features a great example of Creative Storage Solutions for Desperate New Yorkers.
How delightful is that!
I vote to name the parents Tony & Maria since they on the West Side and close to the locations where the outdoor scenes from the movie were shot–Lincoln Center and also Lincoln Towers 2 blocks south.
What magnificent photographs, creatures, and people. How will you ever take it down?
I have been watching these two hawks for two years.The male was born on 84th st. on the fireescape at WEA. The mom was adopted at about 3 mos. old by the males mom and dad and they were together for one year. last year the mom and dad on 84th st. feed a poison rat to three new babys and they all died and mom and dad took off.No nest this year on 84th st. Love your pictures!!!Thank you Billy
Aww, I didn’t know that.That’s awful. 🙁
Claire – some more birds
My daughter in NYC sent this special post to me on a particularly hard day missing my son who “crossed over” last Oct. He had a hawk that sat on the ledge of his hospital window & watched over him on several different times he was in the same room! I prayed all day for a sign of his peacefulness & now your tender pictures came to me! Bless you in NYC from Michaels Mother.❤️????????
Oh, how fabulous to have had these birds on your fire escape.
And bronze the beach chair….
nOW i KNOW WHY i COULDNT BRING UP A PHOTO YESTERDAYAND KEPT SEEING A BEACH CAIR IB THE NEW APP NAME! i WAS SO CONFUSED THAT i RE REGISTERED TO MY GOOGLE! wHAT A JOY TOSEE THIS BEAUTIFUL SHOT TODAY! bRAVO!
Bravo! Seautiful and illuminating!
Fantastic and oh so informative! What does website mean on my sign in,cant goin dumb and old!
Mr. O’Kelly is a very lucky and nice guy. How adorable is this? And a beach chair is now their crib. The parent are quite special also. An all time great story and photos. Thanks for the post.
I meant to add and thank the writer of course. Dennis Paoli, as I read your piece I was struck by the quality of your writing. At the end I see I have not been alone in that admiration. Excellent.
Mother Nature lives everywhere!
Nice way to put it.
Please keep us updated on the progress of these beautiful creatures.
Such a treat! Thanks for sharing these wonderful pictures…
Lovely
What a wonderful experience for you Jimmy! One word of advice…keep the door closed and observe them from a distance. If they kids get spooked they could jump before they are ready to fly, with bad consequences. I love Red-Tails; they are my favorite bird…I wish I had a fire escape too! 😉