The remaining two Hawk kids fledged today. The second bird fledged at 5:25AM, the third at about 6:06PM. All the fledglings are safe and sound from what I’ve heard from a fellow Hawk-watcher.
The first fledgling (F1 I’ll refer to it as for convenience’s sake) appeared to have roosted at One Fifth Avenue, the building I last saw it on yesterday afternoon. I was informed that it flew from One Fifth to a high point of NYU’s Silver Center building around 8:00AM. Dad Bobby was perched several feet below it.
F2 (the second fledgling) flew from the nest to the low buildings outside the northern border of Washington Square Park. It then dropped into a tree by its building just before 9:00AM. Rosie and Bobby sat in the same tree as the fledgling. It must have been an absolutely beautiful sight and the people who saw it all said it was amazing.
The parents went their separate ways but F2 stayed in its tree. I got to the park at 9:30AM and got to photograph it in its tree.
One of the parents flying overhead, above Silver Center:
Navigating its way around the tree:
It looked like Rosie had perched atop One University Place‘s construction scaffolding, a regular spot from which to look over her brood lately. From there she could see all three of her hatchlings.
Rosie flew off her perch then landed on the park and F2-facing side of Silver:
The fledgling moved to a window sill:
Rosie:
The fledgling moved from branch to branch before returning to a window sill:
F1 was crying loudly throughout part of this time. It seemed to still be on Silver. All of a sudden one of our group saw it seated high on the building:
It was begging almost non-stop:
We didn’t catch when Rosie left her Silver Center perch but she and Bobby were spotted on NYU’s Education Building ten minutes after F1 was spotted. Rosie is on the left:
She hopped off her perch. She had food with her:
She landed on the side of Silver with the meal.
F1 saw Rosie with the food and flew toward her:
Rosie:
F1:
Rosie took hold of the food and delivered it to the fledgling:
The fledgling rushed to the food and mantled (protectively covering the food with its wings).
Rosie then flew to a corner of Silver to watch over the fledgling as it ate:
This meal could have very well been its first since fledging on Friday. No one saw it eat all day on Saturday. Meal time started at 11:24AM today (Sunday).
I watched the babe eat for a few minutes.
I then went to check on the baby still on the nest ledge:
It was looking well. It turned and settled down toward the back of the ledge.
I returned to F1. It was still eating:
I watched it eat for another twenty minutes. I then returned to the northern border of the park to check on F2.
It had moved from its original tree to another further west. A fellow Hawk-watcher saw me looking for the fledgling and kindly pointed out its new location to me.
It was still hopping about various branches:
One of the parents was perched overhead on Silver:
Rosie and Bobby then perched together on the northeast corner of Silver (Bobby on the left):
Rosie left after one minute, bringing the food to another, higher perch on Silver:
Bobby:
All of a sudden there was the sound of a terrific crack and the sight of a branch falling on the street. It was a branch F2 had been perched on. The fledgling flew from the tree to inside the park before dropping down to ground level. Fearing it might be hurt or in new danger on a park path, I ran into the park to find it.
I and fellow Hawk-watchers looked high and low but couldn’t see it for several seconds before one of us spotted it on a lawn behind the row of benches in front of us:
It was very nervous and walked further onto the lawn, further away from people:
It instinctively tried to get to higher ground. It jumped onto the trunk of a nearby tree but it was too tall, with no branches low enough for it to get onto:
It walked around the lawn some more. It had some nice tall plants to tuck under. Thankfully there were fences around, keeping it several feet from the nearest person. It was definitely scared though and cried out for help several times.
It walked around some more before attempting to get into a smaller tree:
It successfully made its way further up the tree.
It was in this tree for fifty minutes. The park was very crowded on account of it being a hot Sunday and what with the annual Ultimate Science Street Fair going on. Lots of people stopped at the fledgling’s tree to take photos and ask questions. I had fun answering the questions of the kids who had been there for the fair.
The fledgling had been looking around for a better tree to fly into. It flew from its small tree to a proper large one several feet away:
It was now in a better spot but the crowds underneath it were immense. I left the area to have a look at the babe still on the nest ledge.
Rosie was on a corner of Silver:
F2 from behind:
Last babe still in the nest (but not for long!):
I went home. I got the reports that Bobby fed F2 on a low building top at the northern border of the park (not far from the building I first saw it near) around 5:50PM.
At 6:06PM I heard that the last baby, the one still in the nest had fledged. At 6:19 it had landed on the sidewalk outside the eastern section of the park before flying into the park and hiding under a bush.
At 6:56 I was informed F1 was at the top of Silver. F2 was still atop a townhouse at the northern part of the park and F3 was on a park bench at the east side of the park! I’m sure it found a safer spot to perch or else I would have heard.