I wasn’t seeing any sign of the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks the first fifteen minutes I was in the park today so instead of continuing a search for them in the heat, I stood still and waited for glimpses of their movements in the trees.
The tactic paid off because I soon saw one of the fledglings moving about in the tree far across from me. It was trying to get away from a harassing Mockingbird.
The fledgling is on the horizontal branch below the upper central window:
In a new spot but still being harassed:
The fledgling flew off the tree and headed south. The Mockingbird chased it a good distance.
The fledgling then found refuge at the church cross:
It flew off after four minutes:
I lost sight of it and never saw it or any of the other fledglings the rest of my visit.
I saw Rosie approach the park from the south twenty minutes after I last saw the fledgling.
She was looking down at the ground a lot at first when soaring above the park:
She circled and soared from the southern edge of the park to the eastern one, then north. She landed high up on One Fifth Avenue once she got north of the park.
It was a treat to see Cormorants passing by the park:
Rosie on her northeast perch atop One Fifth:
A Mockingbird dive-bombed her several times:
Rosie did not appear to be too bothered though.
All of a sudden Bobby appeared from further north with a twig in his talons.
He circled in the sky in front of Rosie with his supply:
In front of One Fifth:
After a few more turns he tucked in like a bullet and sped toward NYU’s Shimkin Hall, the site where he and Rosie have been bringing new nesting material lately.
As I wrote in an earlier post, they stashed material at Shimkin last summer as well after their last brood fledged but they did not use the new site for this spring’s babes.
Bobby descending to Shimkin (the corner of Bobst Library in front of him):
Rosie watched where he landed and tucked in and bulleted over to Shimkin as well.
It took me a minute to reach Shimkin.
Bobby:
I stepped closer and saw Rosie on a window sill further east of him (both Hawks in the shot below):
Rosie:
Rosie and Bobby then spent the next several minutes leaving then returning to the window ledges with material or to otherwise check on things.
Rosie:
Bobby:
Rosie carrying wire:
Flying past the Bobst Library nest:
Flying back toward Shimkin but then making a detour between Shimkin and Bobst:
Bobby:
He left the ledge a couple of minutes later:
Bobby flying south between Shimkin and Bobst:
Rosie:
She flew past Bobst then landed on the Judson Memorial Church cross:
Bobby entered the Bobst Library nest site several minutes after Rosie landed on the cross.
Bobby on his way out of the nest:
Rosie:
A Mockingbird harassed her.
Rosie returned to Shimkin, landing on one of its window ledges again.
I checked the western side of the park for fledglings but didn’t find any.
A fellow Hawk-watcher let me know that Hawks were near him at the eastern side of the park so I went over to have a look.
Bobby was sitting across from Shimkin:
I moved to get a better view of him.
He flew out of sight. We looked for him but it was already too uncomfortable weather-wise for me to stay any longer(I had been at the park for two hours already)so I left.
Later on my fellow Hawk-watcher reported seeing one of the fledglings flying around One Fifth Avenue. He also saw one of the parents carrying what appeared to be twenty feet of wire over the park before losing hold and dropping it. Twenty feet!