Red-tailed Hawk landing on nest, Bobst Library, NYU, New York City

Sunday with Bobby and Violet – November 20, 2011

I was alone for the first leg of my search for the Washington Square Park red-tailed hawks. I spotted Bobby finishing a rat or mouse meal on a branch near where I was walking:

Finished with his meal, he contentedly began to “feak”, or wipe the meal’s remnants off his beak on the branch:

He sat on a perch overlooking an area where many rats are known to live:

I walked over to a better spot to photograph him and got to enjoy watching him preen and relax for a while:

Hello:

Violet flew overhead and out of sight. Bobby watched her fly by:

Watching rats and squirrels below:

One of a few squirrels who approached him to harass:

He was watching so many rats and mice on the ground below with such earnest, I thought he might make a go for them but he didn’t. Instead, he flew to another tree:

More and more hawk friends arrived at the park and got to delight in Bobby’s personage.

He saw prey to his liking:

You can make out the gray of his feathers in the brush:

Success:

After his second meal, he flew to a new tree:

Another perch:

I lost sight of Bobby but almost immediately, a fellow hawk-watcher called to let me know she saw a hawk at the Red Roost Inn (the hawks’ regular night perch). It could only be Violet at the roost. Within a couple of minutes, she called back to say a second hawk just flew to the roost. I stopped looking for Bobby in the park and made my way to the roost since he was obviously with Violet. It was a lovely sight to see the two of them together again.

Violet on the perch above Bobby, steadying her footing:

It became too dark for me to photograph so I left the two love birds for the night.


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