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

Rosie hunting, Bobby perching, Fledgling eating – June 1st, 2012

Rosie was perched on the side of Silver Center that overlooks Washington Square Park east when I arrived.

She hunted in the park:

She flew from the ground to another tree empty-taloned.

Flying past Garibaldi statue:

At this point she was sitting low in a tree just outside the park (on Washington Square North between 5th Avenue and University Place):

Green triangle of Silver Center in the background:

People rushed over to her to take close-up photos:

She caught a decent-size rat:

Red brick of Bobst Library in the background:

Crossing Washington Square North again:

Landing on a low building near the corner of Washington Square North and University Place (northeastern corner of the park):

Atop building at eastern side of the park:

She took the rat to the top of Silver for her two fledglings. They were perched further in on the roof top and away from view at the moment:

One of the fledglings appeared:

It saw Rosie with the food so went over to her:

Rosie’s tail end as she ate/cut up the food. At one point I saw her beak-feed the fledgling:

I moved to get a better angle of the hawks eating but didn’t have great luck.

Fledgling (not sure if it was the same one that was eating) on a roof structure:

The little hawk went closer to the middle of the building top and out of sight.

A friend pointed out that Bobby was on a lower corner of Silver (further north) so I went over to have a look. He’s on the cornice below the green element:

Fledgling on Shimkin in the distance:

Bobby relaxed and stretched and stayed on that perch the whole time:

Rosie flew to the front of Silver to be closer to him (her tail end below the green):

Dark clouds covered the area and the wind began to gust. Sorry for the low quality of these photos during this time but there wasn’t much I could do camera settings-wise to combat the dark and get details of the scenario at the same time.

She walked along the cornice to get closer:

Having a look over at him:

Rosie flew toward then past Bobby:

She circled around then landed on the railing atop Silver:

She then flew south and out of sight:

Fledgling in the same place on Shimkin as before:

Bobby:

It was getting later, darker, and windier and I was losing hawks so I headed home.

I turned around to have a last look and saw one of the adults soaring and circling above the southeastern side of the park. I watched as it then headed east out of the park and as far as Mercer Street (two blocks east of the park) before losing sight of it.

During my walk home I approached a building where street-based food carts (the kinds that sell pretzels and hot dogs and drinks) are unloaded and stored. I was a bit disturbed to see some pretzels rather sloppily arranged on a tray in a shopping cart (which may not be the cleanest one in town). After seeing that, I am pretty sure I won’t be buying soft pretzels from a cart again.


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