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

Saturday sizzler with the fledglings – June 30th, 2012

I saw mama Rosie on a lamp post when I first arrived at Washington Square Park to visit the Hawk family. It was early in the morning so the sizzle of the current heat wave hadn’t quite kicked in yet.

It took me a few seconds but I finally noticed one of the fledglings sitting on a bench (lower right-hand side of the photo below). Rosie is on the lamp post to the left:

The fledgling flew to the ground beneath, presumably to look for prey.

Its sibling came crashing down to join it:

Guy is walking close to the other fledgling to take a close-up:

Rosie landed on a traffic light pole just outside the park (at the intersection of West 4th Street and Washington Square West):

Rosie flew into some park trees and perched.

While I went looking for her, one of the fledglings landed on a lawn ahead of me:

It was at a small pool of water by a sprinkler:

Its sibling flying over:

It landed on the lamp post to my left:

Leaning in to drink some water:

Fledgling on the post:

Each at their own sprinkler puddle:

Slinking down to take a cooling bath. There was only enough water for the bottom and tail to get wet:

Drinking:

Everyone started preening, even the squirrels:

It started to get hotter and hotter.

One of the fledglings flew basically the same route Rosie had earlier and ended up in a nearby tree:

The fledgling that had been preening closest to me had many squirrel visitors:

About five or six squirrels approached the Hawk and ran under her or near her to take a look.

It was getting later and hotter so I left after about a two hour visit.


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