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

A fledgling in a flower pot – June 21st, 2014

I watched the Washington Square Park Hawks for about 2 ½ hours today. I got to see Rosie, Bobby, and one of the fledglings.

The first Hawk I saw was Bobby, being dive-bombed by a Mockingbird (as usual!):

At one point Rosie and Bobby flew high above the park together. They followed each other in the sky for a couple of minutes (which was actually quite a while).

Rosie higher up:

A fellow Hawk-watcher spotted one of the fledglings on a One University Place terrace railing. The apartment building is outside the northeast corner of the park. The fledgling cried for a few seconds right after Rosie and Bobby flew overhead:

It was Dell, as evidenced by the gaps in his tail and wing feathers:

Eyeing a House Finch:

He flew about along the railing and wound up in a flower pot:

We watched as he’d pick at some of the flowers and stems.

A righteous dude was having a smoke on a neighboring terrace:

He didn’t notice the fledgling at first (who is in the flower pot on the right in the photo below):

But he did wind up spotting the bird and had his lady friend who was inside come over to have a look too:

The fledgling took to exploring the terraces again:

He then made a great flight to a new building a couple of blocks away:

I saw Rosie was with the fledgling by the time I spotted him on his new perch.

Rosie:

Rosie left after a little while, heading to the park.

The fledgling hopped down and out of sight. We looked for him from different vantage points but didn’t see him again. However Rosie did return and made a few circular flights above him before she flew southward.

He was tucked somewhere below the roof rim:

There are so many good ‘tuck-away spots’ around, it is no wonder I and my fellow Hawk-watching buddies can go a day or two without spotting the fledglings!

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