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

Bobby high above all day – December 03, 2011

During my visit to the park, I only saw Bobby but earlier in the day, a fellow hawk-watcher confirmed seeing Violet perched on one of her favorite building perches before flying west and out of the park.

I saw Bobby always either in the sky or perched high above today. At first, I saw him circling the corner of Two Fifth Avenue just before touching down:

A seagull is above him. He looks like he’s hovering thanks to photographing him at such an angle:

He flew off his perch heading east, only to turn around and land a little higher than before on the same building:

He circled in the sky several times with no effort at all:

He flew south and out of sight for about half an hour before showing up again on Judson Memorial Church:

He flew overhead and continued north along Fifth Avenue to around 12th or 13th Street before I lost sight of him. It was fun to see him fly up Fifth though. The hawks too like to use our thoroughfares for passage.

Life went on as usual on Fifth Avenue:

After standing watch for several minutes, I saw Bobby finally heading back toward the park. It was pretty thrilling to see his shape get closer and closer from up Fifth avenue:

He landed on a building a block north of the park for a couple of minutes. He then again flew north away from Washington Square Park and toward the direction of Union Square Park.

It was another twenty minutes or so before seeing Bobby again. A fellow hawk-watcher in another portion of the park let me know he was on the top of One Fifth Avenue. From my positioning, I could see heat waves rising in front of him so perhaps he was enjoying the thermal bath of sorts.

Starlings enjoyed his cross perch for a few minutes:

But not for long! Bobby was soon on his way:

A peregrine falcon soon harassed him:

It was getting dark so he eventually flew toward his evening roost. He stopped short on a tree in view of the roost for a couple of minutes first (perhaps to check if the roost was safe to enter?).


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