It was bitterly cold and windy in New York City today. Thankfully, Rosie and Bobby were present in Washington Square Park during my visit today.
I didn’t yet have my camera set up when I first entered the park so I missed capturing the amazing sight of Bobby and Rosie being chased by one peregrine falcon each. I only managed to get photos of one of the hawks being followed by a peregrine.
Lesson learned; always assemble my camera when I’m a block from the park so as not to have any regrets over a missed shot.
After the hawks and falcons separated, it took a while for one of the red-tails to show itself again. I spotted one of the hawks on the side of NYU’s Kimmel Center. It was Rosie:
Trees came between me and Rosie’s flight path but I was lucky my camera locked in on her movements:
The falcon and the hawk in another tussle:
The falcon did a couple more flybys at Rosie before giving up its taunts.
Rosie back on her journey:
Rosie eventually settled down on a couple of trees for a long while early in my visit.
It was great to have the sun come out and illuminate her as she sat so I could take advantage of the natural lighting and compile a large number of portraits of her.
Some scratching to hit the spot:
A squirrel on the lower right (ignored by Rosie, as most squirrels are):
She spent the remainder of the day either seated on high building perches or in flight.
She had some trouble flying against the strong winds but handled them with her usual grace and power.
Panicked pigeons fleeing from Rosie:
Flying behind the Washington Square Park arch:
Landing on NYU’s Silver Center:
Flying past Judson Memorial Church:
Landing on a building at the western side of the park:
A preen:
Rosie flew away and out of sight.
A hawk wasn’t seen flying again until around 4:35, about 10 minutes after Rosie disappeared. Since the hawk’s arrival was a good hour before roosting time, I assumed it might stick around the area but that did not happen. Instead, it headed north, toward Union Square Park. It was not possible to tell exactly where it ended up for the evening.
We waited another hour for a hawk to return to the park but we were disappointed. No hawks came to roost in the familiar park roosts. It’s probable the hawks were too comfortable where they were and didn’t want to bother fighting the winds just to go to their roosts along the park.
A peregrine falcon was the last raptor I saw:
