I wasn’t sure I’d get to Washington Square Park to visit the hawks on Saturday since I was behind in chores and errands and was feeling cranky overall but once I was out and about, I couldn’t resist visiting the park for even a little while. I ended up staying until I knew both Rosie and Bobby were tucked in for the night.
As I approached the park, I spotted one of the hawks seated on a terrace railing (second terrace from the bottom, left-hand side of photo):
Bobby flew to a perch on the corner of the park arch. JumpFlapper had reported seeing both Rosie and Bobby on the arch a day or two before so it was exciting to see a hawk go to the perch with my own eyes:
Rosie soon followed Bobby to the arch as well:
Rosie:
Bobby on the corner:
Rosie:
Rosie left her perch and headed toward the eastern side of the park:
Her shadow on the wall:
Spot the hawk:
She landed on a tree at the easternmost border of the park:
I was tempted to follow her but was more interested in what Bobby may do next:
Rosie left her tree and swooped over the park and went to the western side of the park.
You can just see Rosie above the crowd (right of the middle lamp post):
Bobby stayed on the arch for a little while longer:
I saw Rosie fly close to the ground from where I was standing. Curious to see if she had caught something, I left Bobby and went to see what she was up to. She was perched on a bench in an area of the park still under construction. It was lucky she was in a fenced-in area at the time because there were a lot of people in the park due to the higher-than-usual temperature. Folks often get alarmingly close to the hawks if they’re on a lower perch and will crowd around the hawks to take close-up photos.
Thankfully, no one has truly endangered the hawks yet but it is unnerving to see people regard the hawks as an amusement and not give them their due space. The hawks are focused on their hunting and likely regard people as slow, lumbering cattle and so aren’t aware that someone with bad intentions could endanger them. There have been times when I’ve asked a thick crowd to please back away a bit and give the wild creatures some space. Folks usually respond positively but I still can’t help but worry for the birds.
In this case, Rosie was free to sit and hunt in peace:
I looked back at the arch in case I could see Bobby on his corner perch but his corner was not possible to see. There was a pigeon perched there though so he had probably already left the arch:
She left the fenced-in area and flew to a couple of different trees to hunt from:
A rather thick crowd of photographers had gathered underneath Rosie by then so I thought it may be a good time to break away from her and see if I could find Bobby again.
Within a couple of minutes, I found him perched a little further north from Rosie’s tree:
He flew to the fenced-in area himself to hunt:
Rosie:
Bobby:
He was perched in one of his favorite trees neighboring a squirrel box featured in my post from last Saturday. The squirrels dashed into the box upon seeing Bobby, chattering up a storm as they sought refuge:
Bobby flew to the eastern side of the park:
What I didn’t notice until I got closer was that Rosie too was in that part of the park, in a nearby tree:
Bobby:
Bobby flew a little further east:
Rosie flew closer as well. It wasn’t easy to get them both in the same frame due to having only my zoom lens on me but you see Rosie in the lower left corner and Bobby in the upper right corner:
Bobby:
He flew west. I saw him curve toward and land on his chosen tree to roost in for the night. Rosie flew west as well and found her own tree to roost in but it took a while to locate her.
Rosie:
She flew south on MacDougal Street as she often does and toward her mystery roost:
Bobby tucked into a tree for the evening:
