Rosie and Bobby seemed to be in a playful mood during the early part of my visit to Washington Square Park on Sunday. Rosie enjoys diving into the flock of pigeons that is regularly fed at the western entrance to the park. She doesn’t appear to be hunting when she flies into them but instead looks to be enjoying throwing them into a panic. I’ve never seen her eat a pigeon so I think the odds are good that diving into them is a form of play for her.
She dove into a couple of different flocks a few times which was pretty hilarious but the lady feeding the pigeons wasn’t too thrilled with the flybys. If I’m not mistaken, I think Bobby had a turn at diving into the pigeons as well. If that’s the case, maybe Rosie’s playfulness is rubbing off on him. But if I’m wrong and Bobby didn’t dive into the pigeons as well, I hope to be corrected by any of the folks watching the hawks with me today.
Yesterday was a gray day but on Sunday we were lucky to enjoy bright sunlight and blue skies despite the bitter cold (I think the high temperature was 25 degrees Fahrenheit).
Rosie dove into some pigeons while Bobby sat relaxed on a perch nearby:
Bobby enjoying a preen in the sunlight:
Another dive among pigeons:
Bobby:
Raising a foot up to tuck into his warm down:
Rosie:
She flew southeast:
Another Rosie-induced bit of pigeon panic (Bobby is calmly seated on a perch in the background):
Bobby finally left his perch and flew to a tree a bit further southeast as well:
Bobby:
Perfection in aerodynamics:
He landed on a building ledge to the south which overlooks the park:
Red-tailed balloon mass stuck in the trees:
Bobby flew to the east side of the park:
He snatched at pigeons on the arch before heading further east:
He must have gone to the east side of the park to be near Rosie who was perched on a lamp post along a path. In the photo above, Bobby was in a high tree where he could see Rosie clearly.
Rosie:
At one point while I was photographing her, a young man listening to music on his headphones walked by and underneath her; oblivious that he was only a couple of feet away from her.
She flew low and scattered some more pigeons. The people to the right of her never noticed her:
Bobby stayed at the current side of the park but did fly to a tree further north:
We left Bobby to head to the western side of the park in search of Rosie but did not find her until we spotted what turned out to be her soaring low above the center of the park then further east.
Rosie soaring in the far distance:
Her soaring inspired a peregrine to rise up and harass her. We lost track of Rosie but the dive-bombing and yelling peregrine falcon eventually pointed her out to us.
Peregrine:
Rosie:
One of our band came over to tell us a hawk was just on the ground with some prey. We turned and saw Bobby fly a rat to a tree to eat:
He must have been hungry because he spent a long time eating. Checking my photo time stamps, he ate from 4:25 – 4:45.
Rosie soared overhead but then flew straight north and out of sight for the rest of the day:
Bobby finished eating and headed toward his bed-time roost:
He tucked in at the same tree as the night before:
