I was at Washington Square Park listening to nearby squirrels giving their warning cries to each other (indicating one of the resident Red-tailed Hawks was around). I was looking at all the trees around me for a Hawk but was thoroughly confused why I wasn’t seeing one.
I saw a fellow Hawk-watcher down my path so I waved hello and started walking toward him. He was waving at me to stop and pointed to the ground. There was Rosie, right near me, on the other side of a fence!
She had just caught a rodent:
The area outside her right eye is a little crusty from what is hopefully a mild infection. It doesn’t seem to be affecting her eyesight in any way since her eye is perfectly clear as you can see in the photo below. But I’ll be keeping a close watch on her and check if it gets worse over the next week or more.
She continued to hunt.
She dropped right down to the ground and caught another rodent:
The high temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit today so I gather the rodents were coming out of their burrows in order to forage for their own food in the warmer weather. It made for easy pickings for Rosie.
She had landed on a different lamp post along the same path the whole time.
A few squirrels checked her out but otherwise left her alone.
She stared in the distance, watching something intently.
I figured she was watching Bobby but I wasn’t seeing him.
A fellow Hawk-watcher saw Bobby as he landed on a NYU flagpole and pointed him out:
He flew to the Judson Memorial Church cross after a few minutes:
Rosie followed him, flying clear across the park to be near him:
Rosie:
She moved to a new tree:
Bobby flew in my and my friend’s direction, surprising the heck out of us because we didn’t even know he was so close to us in the first place. He had flown toward us from a tree several yards away.
I barely had time to raise my lens and take the photos of him landing:
Rosie flew to another tree:
So did Bobby:
Bobst Library on the right:
He then flew to the opposite side of the park. Rosie flew after him a few seconds later.
I spotted one of the Hawks on a building top in the distance (nicely silhouetted against the sky):
The Hawk flew toward the Red Roost Inn. It had been Rosie.
It got nearly pitch black out with still no Bobby. It was so dark, we figured he wouldn’t be retiring with Rosie tonight. We left Rosie and went searching for Bobby in the trees. I suggested we look for him at a roost he would favor when not roosting at the Red Roost Inn last winter. He was there!
It was very exciting to see him all tucked in and to know he was safe and sound.