It was too rainy for me to visit either Central Park or Washington Square Park to take photos/go Hawking yesterday. But Bobby and Rosie were both seen doing well, per a Hawk-watching friend of mine who got to spend some nice time with them earlier on Monday.
Today was much better weather-wise and I had the time so I visited both parks.
The male Southeastern Central Park Red-tailed Hawk landed on the side of The Plaza just as I stopped to scan the building’s facade. I just love timing like that.
He soon flew northeast (just right of the building in the photo below):
He then swooped around and returned to The Plaza:
I could be wrong but it seemed like he was revealing where he was to his mate if she were around.
Because this pair of Hawks have twigs/potential nests at The Plaza and at an apartment window sill further west, I took a couple of shots of the western building to see if more nesting material had been brought there since my last visit.
Well, it turns out the twigs the male Hawk supplied to that window sill are gone. The material could have been blown off by the strong blizzard winds, the apartment’s tenant, or the workmen who were cleaning/repairing bits of the facade today:
My break was over so I headed back to work.
I visited Washington Square Park at the end of the day. Since we are getting more daylight each day, I can now regularly catch some decent Hawk action after work.
A friend who was already in the park alerted me that Rosie had been seen in the nest earlier but that she disappeared just before I got there. But Bobby was sitting on a Two Fifth Avenue terrace:
He disappeared behind some buildings as he headed toward the Red Roost Inn (regular night-time roost).
When I reached the roost, he was sitting on an upper tier. I suspect he entered the roost from behind (considering the trajectory of his flight).
With leg kicked out, relaxing:
All of a sudden, Rosie appeared as she flew down the street and toward the roost. I thought she was going to follow Bobby to the roost but she suddenly banked right and went down the other street at the intersection (it’s funny how the birds follow the streets as cars do).
She was so low and so huge as she came toward us initially, the small group of us couldn’t help but exclaim, “Woah!!!” or “Wow!” at the sight of her.
A couple of us went to the corner to try to spot her in the air or a tree (since we were diagonally across from the park). I suggested she may be on an air conditioner of the building we were standing next to since those particular air conditioners are regular food drops for the Hawks. The birds like to get leftovers before going to bed if they are hungry and it’s too late or too dark to hunt.
Sure enough, Rosie was on an air conditioner. I spotted her and we all had so much fun seeing her there.
I couldn’t believe it but she descended to the park lawn across from her. I say this because it was already night-time and it was so dark, almost too dark for Rosie to spend time hunting.
But she dropped to the ground then rose up again with a rat only seconds later.
She brought it to a tree and ate quickly:
She then went right to bed:
She roosted on a rung further down from Bobby’s:
But they were together which was the most important and relieving thing to see.
Bobby:
