If you live in New York City it’s always a good idea to glance up from time to time at the building tops because you never know when you’ll see a Red-tailed Hawk.
As I was walking in the Lower East Side of Manhattan to meet a friend I was going to visit Washington Square Park with, I glanced up and saw a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk perched atop an apartment building’s vent cover:
The building is on 1st Avenue between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The building is not far from my apartment building so I suspect the bird may have been the same one that has perched across the street from my building lately.
It was on to Washington Square Park.
Rosie and Bobby had been seen earlier in the day. They were very active going in and out of their Bobst Library nest and to Shimkin (where their secondary nest is located).
My visit to the park was hours later, close to roosting time.
The first Hawk to be seen was Bobby, just after landing on the Judson Memorial Church cross:
He was preening up a storm!
He preened for fifteen minutes before settling in to relax a bit.
He flew behind the church and out of sight.
I found him a few minutes later sitting on an NYU Silver Center flag:
He was off after three minutes:
I kind of figured he’d swoop around again and into view eventually since it was ‘hopscotch’ time for Bobby. Bobby and Rosie are very different when it comes to how they go to bed.
Rosie will go straight to her evening roost but Bobby is always more cautious in his actions. He will hopscotch around to various perches before going to bed as (I assume) a means to throw off any creature that may be following him.
Bobby returned to the same flag pole as before after a few minutes.
A nice scratch:
I was busy photographing Bobby so thankfully my friend saw Rosie head toward Bobby from the west:
She landed lower on the same building Bobby was on (Silver Center):
Bobby leaving his perch again:
He swooped around and headed back in Rosie’s direction:
He landed at one of his favorite roosts, a small corner on the facade of Silver Center (overlooking the park):
Rosie is still on her perch below as she was in the photo six pictures above.
The tree is in the way but Bobby is perched below the green triangle on the left-hand side:
Rosie flew off her perch, rounded the corner of Silver Center, then roosted on one of the regular night-time fire escape roosts two blocks east of the park:
