A shot of the previous night’s hawk roost in the day time:
After circling Washington Square Park a couple of times scanning as many buildings and known hawk perches as I could remember, I stopped in my tracks to better bundle up against the cold, strong wind. And wouldn’t you know, as soon as I looked up, hello!
It was Violet, right in front of me!
She flew to another part of the park after a couple of minutes:
I followed her to the opposite side of the park. At first I didn’t notice that Bobby was sitting in the tree right next to me. In fact, a stranger who noticed me taking photos of Violet pointed Bobby out to me by saying, “There’s a second one right over there”. Ha!
Hello, Bobby.
Outstretched wing for balance:
Violet in nearby tree:
She spotted prey in a bush beneath her and pounced:
Rising back to her tree:
She had caught a mouse! It was still alive:
Someone else’s camera flash provided some extra light:
Personally, I avoid flash at all times when photographing the hawks. I try to be as unobtrusive as possible for them so they can go about their business undisturbed.
Bobby getting ready to find his own meal:
Bobby on the hunt:
He frightened a young lady talking to a friend on the phone. She had NO idea this massive bird was about to visit the bench next to her. Her reaction was pretty hilarious really and she ended up laughing it off:
Bobby scanning for prey:
He caught and killed something in the grass. He spent some time killing/maiming it while on the ground before taking his meal to a tree:
Violet is seen leaving our section of the park in the photo below. She is flying between the windows (on the right-hand side):
The last we see of Violet in flight for the evening:
After flying from tree to tree for a few more minutes, Bobby too left the park (following Violet’s flight path):
Bobby below and to the right of the POW/MIA flag:
Out of curiosity, I and a couple of other hawk-watchers walked over to last night’s roost to see if perhaps one of the hawks returned there tonight as well. One had! It was impossible to tell who the hawk may have been but my suspicion is that it was Violet since she was the first to leave the park and was the first to perch there last night:
We waited a while to see if the other hawk would join the perched one but no such luck at the time so we bid the bird goodbye and called it a night:
