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

Bobby and Rosie. Nest fortification and Rosie’s rodent. September 28th, 2013

A fellow Hawk-watcher was in the park before I had arrived and spotted Bobby on NYU’s Silver Center. I was half a block away and got to see him shortly afterward:

Off after fifteen minutes:

He looked like he was hunting. I searched for him for a few minutes in the direction where I thought he may have landed but didn’t see him. I then noticed that he was back on Silver sixteen minutes later!

He flew off after half an hour, scaring up pigeons during his flight:

I couldn’t find him but did then spot Rosie flying toward Silver from the direction of the nest six minutes after I last saw Bobby:

She landed further east on Silver:

She had dropped down to gather nesting material to bring back to the nest.In flight en route to the nest (in the sky left of Silver):

She flew back to Silver after nine minutes of being in the nest:

Rosie back on Silver:

She then flew off of Silver after twenty minutes and disappeared while flying over the park:

She had boomeranged back onto Silver. I found her there after six minutes of searching for her in the trees:

Off again after nineteen minutes:

She glided down through the trees:

I found her on a lamp post four minutes later:

She was hunting, scanning the low foliage across the path from her:

A few people noticed her and got as close as they could to take photos of her. I kept my distance as usual (thanks to my long lens) and waited to see if she would find and pounce on some prey.

She flew off after eight minutes:

She caught a small rodent:

I found her in the trees further north thirteen minutes later:

She flew to a new tree two minutes later. She spent a fair amount of time preening in her new tree (Bobst Library in the background):

Off after eleven minutes:

Another Hawk-watcher arrived in the park and helped me look for Rosie. We finally saw her thirteen minutes later. She and Bobby landed on the NYU Education building at exactly the same time; he on the flagpole and she on the round dish:

Rosie flew to the nest five minutes later:

Bobby flew off his perch and over the trees, heading west while we were waiting to catch Rosie fly out of the nest.

She left the nest after a couple of minutes, headed southwest:

She and Bobby circled around Judson Memorial Church cross and the block south of the park (West 3rd Street) for a few minutes before disappearing for what seemed for good for the afternoon.

I had already been at the park for three and a half hours so I took their disappearance as an opportunity to leave for the day.

In yesterday’s post I had mentioned how park garbage cans are often not properly lidded, thus providing rats with easy access to the garbage to scavenge for food. Below are a couple of cans I noticed in such a state while I was birding today:

I have met many park workers while out Hawking and I chat with some of them regularly. They are lovely people but I do hope their supervisors would encourage them to make sure garbage cans are tightly lidded more often.


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