The mystery hawk was back at Washington Square Park this morning. It made itself known when it flew directly, and I mean directly, over my head and flew into a nearby tree. After failing to catch either a pigeon or squirrel, it returned to the previous day’s window ledge to pick on the pigeon scraps it had left behind:
With nothing left to eat, it returned to the park to have another go at hunting:
The mystery hawk flew out of sight. To improve our odds of seeing it and perhaps a member of the NYU family, we hawk-watchers fanned out. Within a couple of minutes I spotted a hawk perched on a railing of a building at the East end of the park:
A second hawk was soaring high above the park:
It was Violet on the building and Bobby soaring far, far away.
We found the visiting hawk again in the trees. Within several minutes, it reared back defensively and started “yelling”:
It was Violet approaching, giving chase!
Violet threateningly-chased the visiting hawk, showing it exactly whose turf Washington Square Park was:
Mighty Violet:
You can see the identification tag around Violet’s right leg:
The visiting hawk tried to hunt some more but Violet trailed and chased it again:
After the chase above, it seemed Violet sent the youngin’ packing. It wasn’t seen again by any of our team.
Violet post-skirmish:
Violet soon headed out of sight herself:
The sight of all those pigeons on the arch was a first for me. Maybe they thought safety in numbers was the best way to go to avoid sneak attacks by red-tailed hawks!
Tired from the five hour “hawk patrol”, I went home. It’s supposed to rain for the next few days so I can’t be sure how often I’ll get out to the park. It was fun to see the visiting hawk again but especially good to know that Violet is such a good protector of her territory. It bodes even better that she and Bobby consider the park home and will try to raise another brood next season.