"Baby Huey" update

I've finally gotten caught up with all my e-mails. Below is an e-mail I received from Marge regarding the Red-tailed Hawk fledgling in Green-Wood Cemetery.

"Subject: Baby Huey Update
Date: 7/3/06 10:55 PM


Hi Rob,

Allison and I have been coming into the cemetery sporadically to check up on Baby. When I came in on Wednesday I didn't spot him, but did spot Big Mama & Junior. Big Mamma was bringing new twigs into the nest. Junior was being mobbed by mockers. They were bouncing off his head, it was actually funny. There was an interment going on in the vicinity where Baby likes to hang out, so I suspect he was hunkering down somewhere. Allison went on Thursday and spotted him sitting out in the open on a low tombstone. I was happy to hear he was ok.

Today Allison and I went in to find all the grounds people cutting grass in Baby's favorite area. We heard no bird alarms anywhere, then again, with all the mowers going it was hard to hear anything. We walked over the hill and looked around some more and out of the corner of our eye we saw a hawk fly low and down into the valley. We immediately followed in hot pursuit. We couldn't tell if it was Baby or one of the adult. We heard the birds and followed their alarms. It reminded me of the story of Moby Dick when they "watched the birds" to locate the white whale. It seems we're doing the same thing, lol. There was Baby sitting on top of a headstone. We heard one of the workers say, there's a hawk, so we told him about Baby. The birds were harassing him like crazy. He kept looking at them in a puzzling way. Allison and I were so impressed with how in just one week Baby's head feathers are now in and his beautiful buffy chest is getting lighter. He flew into a tree with robins and mockers in tow..they were going wild..then he flew up back up onto the hill. He looked strong flying. This is assuring to us and made our day. We both had stuff to do, so we left the cemetery very happy to see Baby doing well.

[...]

Marge"