I haven’t written much about our resident Red-tailed Hawk pair much this spring, so we’re overdue for an update.

After nesting on a fire escape at Dwight and Race streets for several years and then moving to a nest at Open Square in 2013, the hawks moved again this year — to another fire escape, at Dwight and High streets. This move put the nest in a much more difficult spot to observe. It wasn’t until just over a week ago that I could confirm whether there were any eyases in the nest at all.

By Sunday I could tell there were at least two in this year’s brood, and finally today they were active enough for what I think is a full head count: three, just like last year. Two of them are shown in the photo above.

In terms of fledge-readiness, though, they’re running well behind the last two years. In 2012 the brood fledged around June 4; last year, fledging happened around June 10. This year, I have yet to see much of the vigorous “jump-flapping” behavior that precedes the first flight. I’m guessing that this year’s brood hatched one to one-and-a-half weeks later than in the previous two years.

I’ll be trying to keep a closer eye on them now that the bulk of the spring migration has passed.