I saw a Cooper’s Hawk soar then land on a water tower right outside the western border of Washington Square Park this afternoon.
It flew off its perch after 6 minutes:
It’s tricky identifying between a Sharp-shinned and a Cooper’s Hawk so I enlisted a fellow birdwatcher to help me identify today’s bird.
This bird was awfully big (much bigger than a Sharp-shinned would be) and its tail feather bars angled at more of a chevron shape than the straighter bars of a Sharp-shinned so we think it was a Cooper’s Hawk.
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I didn’t see Bobby or Rosie today. But I did see a big leaf outside one of the upper NYU Shimkin Hall windows. We’ve seen the Red-tailed Hawks bring nesting material to Shimkin windows many times in the past so I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the Hawks left this bit there.
Here is a view of the building as seen from the western side of the park (Bobst Library on the right):
