When I first arrived at Washington Square Park today, I noticed that both Bobby and Rosie were at their nest:
Bobby took over egg-warming duty as Rosie flew out of the nest:
She landed on the Judson Memorial Church cross:
After soaring above the park for a few seconds, she descended to the trees to hunt. She hadn’t eaten for hours.
Nice stretch:
A poop before flying across the park to hunt from another perch:
The weather was very warm, in the low 70s, and there were many people on the lawns tossing and catching frisbees, footballs, and softballs. Rosie had a hard time finding any stretch of land without people on it. She flew to the only remaining section of the park still fenced off for renovation.
More perches to scan the ground for prey from:
She was having no luck hunting so flew to a building top area whereBobby routinely drops food off and where I saw her eatfrom a couple of days earlier.
She’s below the water tower:
There was no food on the dinner table she ate from on Friday.
A face scratch:
She returned to the nest:
Bobby left the nest:
He flew north and circled around an apartment building I’d seen him perched on a couple of weeks earlier (at the corner of 9th Street and University Place).
He flew overhead and landed on a favorite perch atop NYU’s Silver Center, a building at the eastern end of the park:
After a couple of minutes he flew east over a couple of buildings. He snatched a pigeon that was sitting on one of the buildings.
He flew toward me so quickly, I was not able to photograph the sight of him with the pigeon in his talons very well:
He took the pigeon to the park arch:
He began to pluck the pigeon:
He must have chosen the arch as a place to bring the meal since it was in full view of the nest. Rosie saw him in action and flew to him so she could have her dinner.
Bobby left so she could eat:
Rosie:
Bobby landed on an NYU building for a few seconds before returning to the nest:
Rosie must have been very hungry because she gulped down her food quickly:
She flew north to a nearby perch to wipe her beak:
She flew over the park, hop-scotched to a couple of different perches (to evade any creature that may try to follow her?) before returning to the nest for the evening:
Bobby left the nest and flew to the arch to enjoy his share of the pigeon meal:
After eating for a few minutes, he brought some of the remains to a nearby tree:
He ate at the tree for more privacy/security:
Looking down at me?
Back to dinner:
Bobby is such a great provider. He must have seen that Rosie’s hunting earlier was fruitless so he caught dinner for her. I’d like to think so anyway.Because it was night-time and getting even darker, I was no longer able to photograph. I left Bobby and fellow hawk-watchers for the night.It’s good that the hawks have food options other than rats and mice. Now that the weather is nicer, people will be on the lawns until late autumn. Bobby and Rosie don’t usually hunt squirrels. Bobby brought a nice meaty squirrel to last season’s nest in order to feed Pip (remember when its tail looked so funny sticking out of her beak?). That was the only time I personally recall Bobby killing a squirrel.I hope the hawks hunt pigeon more often. That way they’d avoid crowds on the ground and eat creatures less likely to be poisoned.