A few of us hawk-watchers started our vigil in Washington Square Park on Friday the 12th since Bobby and Violet had been spotted there the day before. We had great luck in seeing Bobby almost immediately upon entering the park’s center. He was sitting on one of his regular perches atop an NYU building at the East side of the park:
Notice his right foot is balled up as Pip likes to do:
He appeared to be in hunting mode; serious and looking over the park for any sign of movement for an easy catch. After a few minutes of seeing nothing, he flew off his perch and headed to Union Square Park. I took video of his flight but he was so fast, I wasn’t able to capture a proper full-body shot at once but I like this charming profile:
Bobby is seen in the center left-side of the photo below, flying north to Union Square Park. His flight was literally six or seven seconds from park to park (no time at all!). It took us about ten minutes to walk the same length (stopping to scan the sky from time to time to see if he was headed back to Washington Square Park or scanning buildings to see if he had found a perch in between parks):
We scanned Union Square Park and the buildings alongside the park for at least forty minutes but did not see him. We decided to leave and return to Washington Square Park in case he flew back without our noticing. It was a couple of seconds after we resolved to walk back to Washington Square Park when one of us spotted Bobby on a building at the West end, overlooking Union Square Park:
I texted a couple of other nearby hawk-watchers who live in the area and notified them of Bobby’s location. Word spread and a few other Pipsters came to the park to join us and have a look at Bobby. After about half an hour of watching Bobby sitting on the side of the building, naturally he flew off the building and into the park when everyone’s eyes (including mine!) were off him for that split second. I had been recording him on and off in the event he flew but had been talking to someone and looking elsewhere the second he did. Lesson learned; keep your eyes (and camera) on the hawk! Luckily, it didn’t take long for us to find him in the trees of the park:
He was hunting. At one moment he flew almost directly over my head (what a rush!):
It became very dark and as he flew from tree to tree the last time, we lost sight of him. We couldn’t tell if he left the park entirely or if he landed in a tree at the Eastern edge of the park. We kept looking for him but did not see him again. We didn’t see Pip or Violet but that wasn’t too surprising considering they are so mobile. No, in this case, it seemed as though Bobby was hunting on his own. I took the opportunity to photograph the sunset on one side of the park and the moon simultaneously in view at the other side of the park before going home:
