I spent about three hours in and around Washington Square Park with a fledgling and Rosie today.
I saw the first Red-tailed Hawk sitting atop a chimney vent on one of the Washington Square Village towers (apartment buildings a block south of the park). It was overlooking Sasaki Garden (where fellow Hawk-watchers and I observed a fledgling hunting a couple of weekends ago).
I was only able to take a photo from afar at the time because I had to answer an important call so it is a mystery whether the Hawk was an adult or a fledgling. The Hawk disappeared when I took my eyes off it for a second.
I walked through Sasaki Garden but didn’t see any Hawks there. I spotted Rosie sitting on NYU’s Silver Center building when I approached the park:
I kept hearing a fledgling crying. I finally spotted it sitting on top of Bobst Library.
The fledgling’s head peeking up over the roof and a view of the nest below him:
He turned and ran to the corner of the library roof, still crying:
Rosie flew off Silver after 10 minutes. She called out loud as she sailed right above the tree line.
I found her 8 minutes later. She was sitting on NYU’s Kimmel Center (across the southern border of the park).
Looking up at the fledgling:
The fledgling continued to beg.
Rosie then dove into the western park trees a minute later:
I wanted to look for her and see if she caught some food (pigeons scattered near where I thought she may have landed) but I didn’t want to miss where the fledgling might go so I stayed put with him.
He dove off the library and flew straight to the Judson Memorial Church cross 20 minutes after Rosie left the scene:
It was then that I could see it was the fledgling with the feather gap in the right wing, longer feather on the left wing (the main way I can tell the two fledglings apart lately).
He sat on the cross for an hour and ten minutes.
I noticed Rosie landing in a tree as I walked in the fledgling’s direction:
I was curious to see what Rosie would do next so I skipped trying to find the fledgling and focused on her for the next 40 minutes.
She spent her time cooling down, watching pigeons, and preening.
She was difficult to see with the naked eye. I would not have seen her in her tree from where I was standing if I hadn’t seen her land.
I had been standing around for too long in the heat and my back was starting to ache pretty badly so I had to bid Rosie adieu!