I followed the same fledgling’s movements throughout the park. It was zipping around from perch to perch, making dives at squirrels and pigeons all the while. To me, it seemed it was either making ardent efforts to hunt or was being playful and practicing its hunting skills (or both?).
The fledglings have caught little rodents for themselves to eat and there are multiple food drops around the park and buildings (provided by their parents Rosie and Bobby) so if the fledgling I followed was hungry it could have found a meal.
I hope the photos in this post show just how ‘zippy’ the fledgling was. I did look for the other fledgling and Bobby and Rosie but they were nowhere to be seen or heard. Their absence was not cause for worry though. The whole family had been seen soaring and circling different areas of the park not an hour before I arrived at the park so they had been accounted for.
Descending and swooping at the southwest corner of the park (where West 4th and Washington Square Park West Streets intersect):
Close encounter with a squirrel that was on the ground:
The Hawks really do have no fear of people and often fly very close to them. As I’ve written before, they must regard us as slow, lumbering cattle to navigate around during their travels. And in a way, they’re right!
Heading right toward me.. I love it when all I have to do is just stand there and lock my focus on the bird as it jets in my direction. Make no mistake; my heart is in my throat the whole time (as brief as it is) because I am in so much overwhelming awe for the bird and I pray I can keep it together and stay focused:
Toward the flock of pigeons that are fed daily and which sit on and around their admirers:
Back to the same area as earlier (the Hawks have regular perches throughout the park):
Being sneaky and spying on the pigeon flock again:
Panicked scattering:
This pigeon was a few sheep short of a flock:
But only for a little while. It eventually flew away from the Hawk.
More Hawk flights:
Lucky spotting:
After searching for the fledgling for a very long time, a Hawk-watching friend who was still in the park with me found it perched on an upper level of the building on the left:
Seeing it was a nice cap to my day:
