I noticed something white and lightweight blowing in the breeze from the NYU Bobst Library Hawk nest early this evening during my Washington Square Park Hawk watch.
From a better vantage point I could see that it looked very much like a plastic bag that Rosie or Bobby had brought into the nest for nesting material. Bobby was in the nest as well:
The Hawks seem to like collecting plastic bags for the nest for many good reasons (strength, softness, etc.). But unfortunately, the bags can pose as potential hazards for the Hawks and their offspring as we saw last season when a plastic bag’s handle got wrapped around one of the baby’s legs.
I sent entrusted NYU officials an email with the photo above to give them the heads-up about the object. If it is a plastic bag, hopefully the wind will blow it out of the nest before any eggs are laid next spring and any action to remove the bag becomes necessary.
Of course, the Hawks may wind up using the currently bag-freeShimkin nest for next year’s brood and avoid this sort of potential threat altogether.
The object could also be some kind of tissue paper but from the way it moved, it looked more like a plastic shopping bag.
Bobby flew out of the nest after a couple of minutes:
He swooped around and landed on Judson Memorial Church cross:
Happy shake:
He was staring at something intently across the park:
I turned to see what he was looking at and spied Rosie sitting atop One Fifth Avenue:
Perhaps she was looking at him as well:
A Peregrine Falcon or Kestrel approached Rosie and dove at her threateningly but did not make contact with her:
Rosie eventually flew off her perch and north and out of sight:
I turned around and saw that Bobby was now off his perch. Luckily, I spotted him flying above the western side of the park just before he descended or else I wouldn’t have known where to look for him:
He landed on a building at the southwest corner of the park:
He too flew out of sight. I ran/walked/ran in search of him the blocks west and north of where he might have flown in hopes of finding him but I didn’t see him again.
I checked in on the Shimkin nest ledge but no Hawks:
Another look at the Bobst Library nest before going home:
