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

The return of the Washington Square Park fledgling – June 10th, 2014

It was four times the charm when it came to getting the rescued fledgling back into the Washington Square Park trees today.

Bobby Horvath about to try to place the fledgling in one of the eastern trees:

Bobby and Cathy Horvath of WINORR naturally did a great job taking care of the fledgling until it was ready to return to the park. It turns out it is a male and its two missing feathers should grow back eventually.

Cathy has been referring to the fledgling as “Dell” since he likes perching on computer monitors so much so that’s good enough for me!

Cathy fed Dell a big meal before the trip back to the park so he should be good for a day or two before he is reunited with and fed again by parents Rosie and Bobby.

I did not see Rosie, Bobby, or the other fledgling the first few hours of my visit. I saw Bobby later on, in the early evening.

The photos below represent what occurred over my five hour stay in the park.

Our good friend ‘Ranger Rob’ assisted:

Dell was pretty wound up and would not stay in the tree at first:

The tree was the safest place for him so Bobby had to collect him again and place him back in the tree:

Ah, finally!

Dell climbed higher up the tree then started to relax, preen, and otherwise perk up. He started to get reacquainted with the park soon enough:

He flew quite a distance to a new tree:

He would cry out from time to time:

He flew into another green tree where he got harassed by Blue Jays.

He then flew north out of the park.

I looked for him in the trees lining the edge of the park and across the street but I couldn’t find him so I looked for the other Hawks.

I saw Bobby soaring over the southern then eastern borders of the park.

Flying over Bobst Library:

On NYU’s Education Building flag pole:

I couldn’t find Rosie and the other fledgling so I returned to the area I thought Dell might be at.

I found him crying in one of the small trees outside the northern side of the park:

There was a period of time when he would look directly toward Bobby and cry. I could not tell if Bobby heard or saw him though. Bobby flew east and out of the park after a while.

Dell tried to fly up toward the window several times.

He eventually flew back to his tree.

Scrunch and spring:

The baby tucked into the tree for the night:

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