A fallen branch on the lawn was a good reminder to be careful under the park trees:
I heard a Kestrel crying out loudly from above and saw it was perched on Judson Memorial Church’s cross:
I saw one of the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks soar to and behind the cross. The Kestrel stopped its cries and fled.
I searched for the Hawk but didn’t find it until I came around the building again and spotted Bobby on the cross.
Having a scratch:
He hopped off and descended to the park trees after twenty minutes:
I caught up with him several seconds later, spotting him in a tree at the southwestern side of the park, eating leftovers:
He was eating a rat:
He eventually grabbed the rest of the rat in his beak, flung his head back and gobbled it whole in a few gulps:
The last few centimeters of the tail going down:
He flew over to the northwestern corner of the park (red pipe of the Red Roost Inn on the left, Bobby in front of the window in the center of the photo below):
I was tempted to walk closer to him to get better shots but I could see the Red Roost Inn perfectly through a break in the trees from where I was standing so I stayed where I was, hoping to get photos of him flying to the roost.
The tactic paid off. He soon flew right to the evening roost:
He didn’t stay at the roost for long though. He was weaving his head from side to side as though he were looking at something intently. He left the roost, flying in the direction of the object of interest:
He circled in the sky diagonally across from the roost then over the whole park to land on a flagpole that overlooks the park from the east:
He was only on the flag pole for a few seconds:
I thought he might return to the roost but instead he flew due north out of the park.
Rosie appeared eighteen minutes after I last saw Bobby. She was en route to the Inn:
A fellow Hawk-watcher and I waited until it got dark but Bobby never came over to join Rosie.
My friend and I then left Rosie to look for Bobby at a couple of other regular evening roosts but we didn’t find him.