It was a very exciting day with the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks Bobby and Rosie on the 5th. They both hunted and killed and ate rats as well as displayed their usual greatness soaring and perching in multiple locations.
Bobby surveying his domain atop One Fifth Avenue:
Slinking down low while stalking pigeons:
He entered the nest (he’s on the right):
Rosie got up a little from the eggs but I guess she wasn’t ready to have a break yet because she stayed put. Bobby soon left the ledge:
This time Rosie was ready for a break.
She got up and left the nest:
She hunted on the western side of the park:
Rearing up and not backing off from a squirrel that charged her. It soon ran away from her:
She landed in the grass by a fence line. The people who were nearby watching her (they were not hawk-watching regulars but park-goers and tourists) crowded over her as she wrestled with prey beneath them. They were literally leaning over her head, trying to get a closer look at her and/or take photos with their small cameras or phones.
Because they were crowding her and in reaching distance, I walked toward them and called out, “Back off! She’s trying to hunt! Back off!” It definitely seemed like a case where they needed to be shocked out of their mode of ‘I gotta get a good shot!’ which is why I came on so strong. Rosie is a wild animal and they were treating the scene like some kind of tourist attraction.
Rosie rose up and flew further away. She did not catch her prey.
Rosie was not about to give up. She wanted to eat so she tried yet again to capture something:
This time she was successful:
Cleaning her beak:
Cleaning her beak again:
She returned to the safety of the nest. Bobby then flew off:
He looked as though he was looking for leftovers from Rosie’s successful hunt because he flew to the last branches she was on, seeming to look to see if she left anything for him:
He hunted for himself and caught a rat right away:
He took his rat to the same exact branch Rosie had taken her prey to:
Note the entrails on the side of the branch. It was from Rosie’s rat. You will see the entrails and the same bump in the branch from the photos of Rosie eating her rat.
Bobby hopscotched to a couple of different trees before safely entering the Red Roost Inn for the evening.
