The first Hawk to fledge on Tuesday the 2nd was still on one of NYU’s Pless building windows from last night when I arrived at Washington Square Park this morning. The Hawk spent the night on one of the window sills. The Pless building overlooks the park and a street called Washington Place.
Washington Place marked below in this Google map:
What’s funny is that I found refuge under an awning across the street from Pless (against NYU’s Silver Center) when it started to rain last night and did hear the fledgling crying and glanced around the Pless windows but didn’t even see the fledgling.
The other Hawk baby fledged about an hour before I arrived this morning and was nowhere to be seen so I focused my visit on the Pless fledgling. The photos below show what occurred during my 4 ½ hour visit.
The fledgling is in the second window above the flag pole:
It was crying a lot at first but seemed to be well.The sight of the fledgling gave people lots of joy today.
A man approached me and told me that one of the building’s receptionists told him that one of last year’s fledglings perched in the same exact window last June 4th (a year ago today). He said he took photos of the bird from inside the room that day and would have to double check the date. He then went inside.
I saw him again probably an hour later. He pulled up his photos from last year on his phone and showed me the date. His pictures were indeed from June 4th! I looked in my photo archives and yep, I too had photos of one of the fledglings there on the 4th. It’s interesting that each spring’s fledglings gravitate to those particular windows in the early days out of the nest. June 2nd, 2012 was one of the more memorable days of the fledglings flying back and forth between Pless and NYU’s Silver Center.
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Bobby on One Fifth Avenue:
The fledgling would jump up toward the windows from time to time:
Rosie circled overhead, located the fledgling, then landed above it to check on it.
The fledgling cried out a lot upon seeing mom.
She then flew toward the park after a minute or two.
Fledglings can last a few days before they are fed by the parents again. They are well-fed before they fledge and can live off the reserves in their crop for a bit so I was not too distressed for the crying baby.
After a while the fledgling flew to a window across the street then back to Pless:
Bobby and Rosie relaxed together atop One Fifth Ave (Rosie is on the left, Bobby’s splayed-out wing on the right):
Everyone was excited to see the Hawk walk past their windows:
The fledgling did a combination of running, walking, and hopping to the corner of Washington Place and Greene Street (the corner one block east of the park):
Remarkably, it hung out overlooking an extremely noisy area full of jack-hammering and trucking:
The fledgling got scared, puffed up its wings at the man, then ran to the corner of the building.
Looking toward the park and down the side of Pless:
The fledgling turned the corner and made its way along Pless again.
Onto the scaffolding(this sight reminding me of that stressful day when the first fledgling from last year landed first on the street then to this very scaffolding):
Admiring the Hawk from afar:
One of the parents circled above the park a few times then looked like it went to the front of NYU’s Silver Center:
Fledgling flying to Silver:
It had a good landing, clearly getting used to all this flying business.
Rosie on One Fifth:
The fledgling then had a longish flight over the street and to the safety of the trees again:
I was glad the bird was finally back in the trees. It was the moment I was waiting for all day.
Hello:
The fledgling started to cry again. It didn’t stay in its first tree for too long because a squirrel kept charging at it so the Hawk left and went to a gingko tree nearby.
Rosie soon landed in a neighboring tree and had a look at it:
Looking up toward the fledgling:
She then flew northward:
The fledgling in its tree, Bobst Library in the background:
A fellow Hawk-watcher found the second fledgling in the trees at the western side of the park this evening. Both fledglings were accounted for as well as Rosie and Bobby.
Rosie and Bobby both brought food to the park-facing side of Pless. The particular area of Pless is where they tend to feed their springtime fledglings so a feeding should be in the works soon.