Bobby was on his high One Fifth Avenue perch when I arrived at Washington Square Park today.
One of the kids was up:
I walked closer to the nest and spotted Rosie in a tree directly across from it:
Looking at her young from below:
She was hunting, eyeing pigeons and squirrels on the lawn below her.
I saw Bobby fly into the nest so I focused my attention on him for a few seconds. I saw his head jerk as though he were watching Rosie intently. I looked for her in her tree but she had already disappeared on me.
Bobby soon left the nest:
He landed on a branch above me then flew to a branch in the tree Rosie had just been in:
He was hunting as well.
A squirrel climbed toward him. It was seated on a branch across from him, more or less at eye level.
Bobby surprised me by making a go for it:
He missed.
He usually goes for pigeons these days since they are so much easier to catch.
Rosie flew into the nest after a few seconds.
Bobby with the library in the background:
Bobby flew overhead and north, out of the park:
Rosie watching him:
I found Bobby zooming straight toward One Fifth Avenue:
I meandered back toward Rosie and the nest:
She left the nest without me seeing her go.
Pigeons scattered in a panic to my left so I kept my eye open to see if Rosie might have been the reason.
Sure enough, it was her.
She flew across the park square (from east to west):
She left the Sparrow with the hatchlings to eat then brought older food out of the nest:
I found her on the cross a few minutes later:
Bobby joined her in the few seconds it took me to walk closer to her:
Bobby:
I saw him leave the nest but didn’t get a chance to photograph him doing so.
I next spotted him on a building diagonally across from the nest, plucking a pigeon:
He flew north, swung around, then brought the rest of the pigeon to the nest:
Out again:
I watched the hatchling on the left in the photo below eat some of the pigeon without assistance.
