Today was a huge day. A new female Hawk spent all day in Washington Square Park with Bobby. They both visited the nest, perched together, soared together, and followed each other around the park for hours.
Her wing patterns are strikingly similar to Rosie’s but I could tell later when I looked at more photos that she was a different bird. She has no band on her leg either so it wasn’t the female that was released on January 13th.
Here’s a look at the young, pretty lass (she is seated on the right, Bobby is on the left):
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Below are some of the highlights from my visit to the park today.
It was a faithful, fellow Hawk-watcher who first saw the new female in the park.
The female was on one of the east side NYU buildings when I arrived:
Bobby was on a nearby building (NYU’s Silver Center):
The female on a western building:
Flying over to land next to Bobby on Silver:
She in flight:
Flying back to Bobby:
The female:
Bobby:
The female:
Bobby entering the nest:
Bobby returning to Silver:
Female approaching Bobby atop One Fifth Avenue:
Bobby and the female eventually flew northwest of the park, one following the other. That was the last time we saw the female for the day.
Bobby returned to the park trees after sunset for his routine rat-hunting.
He caught a rat that was eating peanuts left for squirrels at the base of the Hangman’s Elm.
He waited in his regular hunting tree for a long while but didn’t dive down for food again.
He flew to the evening roost when it was quite dark:
