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

WSP Hawk and sleepy Peregrine – August 3rd, 2014

I looked for the Washington Square Park (WSP) Red-tailed Hawks yesterday afternoon but never found any.

A fellow Hawk-watcher saw one of the fledglings and one of the adults outside Union Square Park earlier this morning. Union Square Park is 8 blocks northeast of Washington Square Park.

I hopped on the subway and headed to Union Square Park as fast as I could but unfortunately missed seeing the Hawks by a few minutes.

I meandered south to WSP to look for the Hawks there.

I saw one on a building under construction as I walked on West 3rd Street (a block south of the park):

It had an unwelcome companion, a Mockingbird:

The building it was on was 5 blocks east of the park, at Great Jones and Lafayette Streets(indicated by the red “A”):

It flew northwestward:

It looked like Bobby.

I watched it circle above Broadway and 10th Street (6 blocks northeast of WSP) before it disappeared when flying westward.

I gave up searching for the Hawks after another hour so I headed back to the building I first saw it on to take a couple of snaps (just for kicks):

The view downtown from the building:

As I and a fellow Hawker looked for the Hawks yesterday, he illustrated how big the nest ledge is by pointing out one of the street-level ledges at the back of the Bobst Library.

They are the same size as the Hawk nest ledge and the man walking past in the photo below really helps to show just how huge the space is and how much running and jumping room the little Hawks get before they fledge:

Of course, the iron spikes on the ledge above are not on the nest ledge itself. They are on the street-level ledges as a deterrent against loiterers and homeless people who may try to lie down on them.

As I was returning home I spotted my local Peregrine sitting on a building a few blocks from its regular perch:

It was preening and otherwise relaxing:

A view of uptown from where I was taking my photos of the Peregrine:

Note the green, lantern-shaped ConEd tower topper that Bobby and Rosie like to perch on from time to time.

I never noticed before but from that angle (in the lower left of the photo below)you can also see Union Square Park landmarks like one of the Zeckendorf Towers and part of the W Hotel’s “Union Square” sign that Bobby sat upon a few times in the summer of 2011 when he brought Pip to USP to further teach her how to hunt:

The Peregrine had a nice full crop and looked pretty sleepy:

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