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

Violet and Bobby together again at long last – November 3, 2011

As soon as I got to Washington Square Park tonight I received a tip that two hawks were in sight at the same time; one perched on a round, white antenna and one on a TV antenna on a building further north. My heart skipped a beat at the news since I remembered Violet favors the white, round antenna perches. I hadn’t seen Violet since October 23rd and was beginning to worry about her welfare just a little. It’s not unusual for her to be out of sight for days at a time so I wasn’t too worried (but still!).

I rushed to get to an area where I could see a view of the hawk perched atop a round, white antenna on a building at the eastern side of the park:

It was Violet, just as I had hoped!

The sunset colors were striking on her reddish-brown feathers:

I ventured north to find the second hawk I was told was in the vicinity. It was indeed Bobby:

His antenna perch is atop the red brick building:

He flew in Violet’s direction so quickly, I had no chance of video recording him so instead I stood and marveled at the sight of him in flight.

Luckily, he landed on a favorite flag pole.. right beside Violet’s perch:

In no time, he flew off the new perch and toward the direction of the “hunting grounds” at the opposite end of the park. Thinking at first he may perch on the Judson Memorial Church cross, I trained my camera on the cross and let the film roll. No such luck tonight:

I scanned the hunting grounds for a couple of minutes hoping to see him hunting but he was nowhere to be seen. I then hurried to the night-time roost in case he was there instead and lo and behold, both Bobby and Violet were perched together!

Violet is on the rung in the foreground, Bobby on the one in the background (facing us):

I was overjoyed seeing them together on the roost again. I hadn’t seen the two of them together on the roost since October 18th. It warmed my heart to see the couple revealing their strong bond.

I walked over to another vantage point to check if I could see them better but was not successful. You can barely see one of the hawks sitting on the top ‘rung’:

I returned to my original viewing spot:

When the sky became too dark to photograph or see the hawks by, I bid them a good night.


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