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

Bobby’s newspaper and Rosie’s pigeon meal – April 9th, 2012

Bobby surprised me by being on a perch I hadn’t seen him on before:

Perhaps he wanted to use the paper as soft bedding for the nest.

He never got a good hold of it so it blew away. It would have been a treat to see him bring the paper all the way up there.

He returned to the nest and switched egg-warming duty with Rosie:

One of the hawks had killed a pigeon and left it on the ground earlier in the day. I heard from someone in the park that Rosie had killed it but I had to take the bird identification with a grain of salt since not many people can tell the difference between Rosie and Bobby.

A squirrel approached Rosie. It was seemingly challenging her presence. She expanded her wings to make herself look menacing. The squirrel was not intimidated and got even closer to her.

Rosie soon descended to the ground and began to eat the pigeon:

She mantled, or protectively covered, her prey from any would-be thief. The only creatures around were the thickening crowds of people lining the fence to watch her.

There really is nothing like watching a Red-tailed Hawk eating a pigeon in a city park.

Wiping her beak clean:

She returned to the nest. Bobby then flew off:

I returned to the pigeon to see if maybe Bobby had flown to it since he flew out of sight. The only beings around the carcass were Chipping Sparrows eating grass seedlings.

The show Person of Interest was filming toward the latter part of my visit.

Actor Jim Caviezel gave me the stink eye. I guess he didn’t like seeing my telephoto lens zoomed in on him.

Carry on, dear sir.


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