I had just reached Washington Square Park this afternoon to look for Bobby with a fellow hawk-watcher when out of the blue I came across this scene; a few men standing on a temporary outside boiler/generator taking photos of a huge and magnificent stranger: a juvenile red-tailed hawk.My heart stopped and my hands shook as I reached into my bag and started taking the first photos.
It had just finished dining on a pigeon which I later learned it had taken from the “hunting ground” of the park (across the street) and brought to the ledge. This was definitely the same hawk faithful Pip-watcher JumpFlapper reported seeing perched atop Two Fifth Avenue earlier in the day.
After a few minutes on the ledge, the hawk flew into the trees of the park and preened and otherwise took in its surroundings. It is not clear, of course, where it came from, if it will try to stay or is simply passing through, and if Bobby or Violet have seen this new visitor. It is Fall Migration time for red-tailed hawks so it may simply be passing through the area. If it tries to stick around, it will be exciting to see how the Washington Square Park hawks react to it!
This hawk is not part of the NYU trio and it does not appear to be one of Pale Male’s offspring either.
The outside boiler the men were standing on is seen below. The hawk was eating on the ledge outside the two lower-right windows of the red brick building:
A squirrel warily approaches to have a look:
You can just see the squirrel’s little head peeking at the hawk in the upper right-hand corner:
The hawk flew out of sight. After spending a solid hour or more searching for the hawk, I gave up and went home. I hope to run into this beauty again. 🙂