Red-tailed Hawk landing on nest, Bobst Library, NYU, New York City

Fledgling zipping about, Bobby mellow for hours – July 29th, 2013

I had searched Washington Square Park for an hour and a half on Saturday the 27th but saw no Hawks. But a fellow Hawk-watcher had better luck and spotted Bobby later that afternoon and Sunday morning so that was good.

Another Hawk-watcher told me theysaw Bobby having a bath in one of Bobby’s favorite rain gutters outside the park while a fledgling drank water from a nearby gutter a few days ago.

When I got to the park today one of the fledglings was zipping about the trees, chasing squirrels.

Bobby had been in the same tree for hours already by a fellow Hawk-watcher’s account. He had moved about from branch to branch but was otherwise pretty relaxed:

The fledgling was still flying about:

At one point it saw something in the distance and zoomed right toward it, boldly flying close to people during its trajectory:

I think it might have been going after a squirrel on the tree trunk.

A Blue Jay flew to the fledgling and perched about it on different branches, ‘yelling’ loudly:

The fledgling watched it for a minute before climbing up the tree, getting closer to it:

Jay still on the branch:

Fledgling in a new tree (center of photo):

It chased a squirrel around a trunk for a few seconds:

But the squirrel gave it the slip. One of the regular guys who hangs out in the park was watching the action with me and said the squirrel escaped into a hole.

The man could have been right because the Hawk kept peeking into what could have been a hole on one side of the trunk:

Back to the squirrel hole, head upside down:

The fledgling then flew to an old, abandoned squirrel nest:

Picking a stem from the pile:

Bobby stirred:

Fledgling on the move again:

Bobby sat up:

The fledgling settled down to rest and Bobby flew out of the tree heading south. I looked for him with a friend but we didn’t find him.


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