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

Month: July 2014

Tompkins Square Park fledglings get fed by their father – July 5th, 2014

I visited Tompkins Square Park this morning to check on the resident Red-tailed Hawk family. All three Hawk babies have fledged so I thought it’d be fun to try to track them down and see how they were getting on.

I am glad I went to TSP instead of Washington Square Park to look for fledglings because I would not have found them; a fellow Hawk-watcher spotted them at 5th Avenue and 12th Street this morning! That corner is a good five blocks north of Washington Square Park and I would definitely not have found them if I looked in all the usual places.

The TSP fledglings were easy to find because I heard one crying/begging loudly from a tall tree. A friend and I followed the sound and got to see a lot of action in the hour we spent in the park.

The first of the two fledglings we saw, hopping about the tree branches:

Continue to the full post… “Tompkins Square Park fledglings get fed by their father – July 5th, 2014”

Sleepy fledgling gets a pigeon meal – July 4th, 2014

I hadn’t been able to bird the last few days on account of the intense heat and/or the heavy rain we’ve had lately. It was a treat to get to see one of the fledglings and both Rosie and Bobby today.

It’s the 4th of July today so the area around Washington Square Park was especially quiet and empty.

I spotted one of the fledglings as soon as I got to the corner of Mercer Street and Washington Place, the same area where I saw both fledglings on June 24th.

Continue to the full post… “Sleepy fledgling gets a pigeon meal – July 4th, 2014”

Both WSP fledglings seen doing well – July 1st, 2014

I had no luck finding any of the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks yesterday but a fellow Hawk-watcher saw both fledglings doing well early this evening.

One of them flew and dove at the pigeon flock that lives just north of the park. Both fledglings then wound up on an NYU building at the eastern side of the park, one of them eating a pigeon (which looked alive and flapping). So it’s possible that fledgling may have captured the pigeon itself.

I’m looking forward to seeing them hunt and to see if Bobby will teach or has already taught them to hunt primarily for pigeons among the buildings.

Bobby would teach each spring’s offspring how to hunt for rats and squirrels in the areas that were fenced off for renovations. However those renovations are complete and the areas are open to the public.

Below is a link to an older post (from the summer of 2011) of Bobby teaching Pip how to hunt in what we’d call “Quantico” or “The hunting grounds”:

https://rogerpaw.com/2011/07/bobby-and-pip-at-hunting-grounds-july-9/