It was still only cloudy when I approached Washington Square Park this morning. I was hoping to see some good Hawk action before the anticipated rain got too heavy.
I spotted a Hawk on NYU housing along West 3rd Street (a block south of the park):
It turned out to be Bobby. My guess was he was in hunting mode, watching the flocks of pigeons that live at the housing complex.
I moved closer to the park, keeping Bobby into view while looking around to see if Rosie might be perched somewhere high around the park.
Luckily for me, she was perched on the flagpole closest to the nest. The flagpole is located on NYU’s Education Building, along the southeast corner of the park and kitty corner from the nest.
It began to sprinkle.
Bobby hopped off his perch (twenty minutes after I first spotted him):
I knew it would be risky for me to leave my location and search for Bobby along 3rd Street so I slowly walked toward where Rosie was perched.
I scanned the sky around me in case Bobby reappeared, heading our way. Thankfully he did. He flew toward the park along West 4th Street.
He flew past Rosie and landed on NYU’s Silver Center, a building a few doors north of her. He was looking over the park.
It began to rain.
He spied some prey on the park lawn and floated toward it:
I had my heart in my throat because he kept descending closer and closer to me. He landed with a well-coordinated crash in front of me, trying to snatch a Starling that was pecking at the ground.
A whole bunch of birds in the nearby trees called out in fright and warning when he started to land. A young lady walking on the closest path in the park sort of screamed in surprise too.
Bobby didn’t catch the Starling so he kept flying.
Tree foliage blocked my view of what happened next. He either caught a pigeon in mid-air, grabbed it from a tree branch, or captured it as it foraged on the lawn. All I saw was a rush of activity in the trees in front of me then Bobby landing on a lawn in the distance.
He’s behind the fence, past the garbage can:
A squirrel approached him:
Bobby plucked and ate some of the pigeon. His meal lasted about fifteen minutes.
He took the pigeon first to a tree across from the nest then flew east with it, to one of the low buildings below where Rosie had been perched on the flagpole.
He then brought the meal to his offspring.
He flew to NYU’s Kimmel Center, a building just west of the nest:
He then flew east down 4th Street.
A fellow Hawk-watcher pointed out a Hawk in a tree across from the nest to me. It turned out to be Rosie. She soon flew out of the tree and landed on NYU’s Shimkin Hall east of the nest:
The red stone of Bobst Library (home to the nest) on the right:
It was raining too hard to photograph the babes and I had much to do so I left the park.