A fellow Hawk-watcher let me know he was with two Hawks a block south of Washington Square Park. He was with one fledgling and Rosie:
The same Hawk-watcher had seen all three fledglings together yesterday so that was good news.The fledgling was begging. Bobby had been seen further east at a regular pigeon-hunting spot and Rosie was with the babe so I was pretty confident the fledgling would get fed soon.
Rosie stretched:
She then descended to a spot where Sparrows were perched outside the park:
Many of the Sparrows fled when she landed. They perched on a railing overlooking her. They were calling out nonstop. It sounded like panicked warning cries:
Rosie crept to the shrubbery and peeked inside. She then caught her prey:
She took the Sparrow’s body into the park:
The fledgling followed Rosie to her tree:
The Sparrow’s body had fallen to the ground when the fledgling tried to knock Rosie from the branch and away from the prey. The fledgling dropped down to the area of the park still undergoing renovation to get the Sparrow.
I had to photograph through spaces in the chain link fence’s security/privacy tarp:
You can just see Rosie crouched on the wooden structure in the above photo.
Fledgling:
Cleaning up post-meal:
Rosie had perched across the street, on the smaller of the two Judson Memorial Church crosses:
Back with the fledgling:
The fledgling dropped to the ground again:
It was running about on the ground and curiously pecking at things before getting to a higher perch again:
It returned to where it had eaten the Sparrow for any leftovers but all that was left were some feathers:
The fledgling then ran some more on the ground and played by new climbing nets:
Snatching and tossing leaves into the air then diving to more to play with:
Its playfulness reminded me of last year’s two fledglings and how much they loved to play with toys they found like the tennis ball (all in the same area still being renovated).
I liked how this Hawk kid was playing on the climbing net before any human kid yet got the chance to.
The fledgling flew to the fence right by my feet.
It walked along the edge of the fence and scratched at the dirt and inspected bits of the ground, seemingly still in play mode.
Back in a tree:
Bobby arrived several minutes later with a freshly-caught pigeon:
Mockingbird about to harass Bobby:
Bobby took his pigeon to much higher ground.
My group moved to new spots to search for him. It was when we were looking for Bobby I spotted a second fledgling flying from clear across West 3rd Street (southeast of us) toward the park:
A fellow Hawk-watcher spotted Bobby in the sky with his pigeon the same instant I was initially laying my eyes on the fledgling.The fledgling flew overhead the same time Bobby landed on the building outside the southwestern corner of the park with the pigeon:
The fledgling reached him a split second later:
The fledgling watched Bobby as he soared in circles above the building a couple of times:
We realized that Bobby had been luring the fledgling over to eat.
The fledgling spent some time jumping along the roof edge with the pigeon before finally settling in to eat:
View from where I was standing while all this had occurred:
