It was perfect timing when I saw Rosie tonight. I first saw her as she was flying in my direction across the Washington Square Park lawn in front of me, only a few feet off the ground, prey in her talons. I had only enough time to turn my camera on, extend the lens, yank the camera up to my eye, then snap this first clumsy photo (phew!):
She landed on the branch right in front of me!
I was pretty happy to see her. I hadn’t seen her since September 16th.
She had caught a rat.
A group of tourists nearby (birders? Why else would they have binoculars ready?) were pretty delighted with the rare sight:
Leg:
Head:
Rosie made her way up to the end of her branch:
A new branch:
Flying past NYU buildings I’ve mentioned countless times in the past.
Education Building:
Shimkin Hall:
Bobst Library:
I next saw her in the NYU Law Building rain gutter:
Ducking down to take a drink:
Bath time:
After more drinks and another dunk, she flew further south.
She had sat in the gutter for about fifty five minutes.
I ran to the corner, turned south, then down the new street to search for her. I had seen her on one of the fire escapes on a building the next block further south before so looked for her there.
She was there thank goodness because it was very dark and I had little time to look for her elsewhere before it was too late.
Other Hawk-watchers had seen her roosting on either that or a nearby fire escape before so it seems this is a pretty regular haunt for her and one to search out at night time.
She rested and preened. It was clear she was not going to do any more traveling so I left her.
I looked for Bobby at a couple of regular night-time roosts of his own but did not find him.