The fledglings are now exploring and cavorting about the Washington Square Park trees.
A fellow Hawk-watcher and I spent close to three hours hanging out with the kids today, following them from tree to tree and one side of the park to the other.
We first searched the eastern buildings for the fledglings but there was no sign of them so we looked for them in the park.
Mama Sadie was the first Hawk I saw. She was sitting on the building that sits outside the southwest corner of the park:
A Blue Jay was carrying on above us (calling out threateningly) so I looked around to see if it was making a commotion over a Hawk and lo and behold, one of the fledglings was sitting in the tree we were standing under!
The Blue Jay was yelling at it and landing on branches all around it.
The Hawk was F2, the second Hawk to have fledged (the one that spent a week on the Pless building):
Nice talons:
Stretch:
Crying:
Sadie flew across the park and toward the fledgling. She circled above the fledgling’s tree for several seconds then went toward the buildings lining the eastern side of the park.
F2 flew to a tree across the path after 10 minutes:
It wasn’t a very graceful flight to be honest but it’ll get the hang of it.
F2 found a good branch and settled down again and preened.
The other fledgling soon appeared above the park square, soaring and circling impressively above the eastern trees:
It disappeared when flying southward.
Sadie flew to and landed on the southwestern corner building again a couple of minutes later. Bobby followed right behind her but continued on a bit:
A Mockingbird then dive-bombed Sadie. Unfortunately this was one of the best shots I could get:
Sadie soared with the Mockingbird along the western border before escaping northward:
It wasn’t long before Sadie flew above F2’s area of the park before landing on One Fifth Avenue. My friend saw Bobby follow her to One Fifth.
F2 traveled from tree to tree:
I should mention that F2 is a cry baby and will call out every few minutes even when resting and preening. It’ll cry when flying too. It’s pretty ridiculous.
F2 leapt out of the last tree, flew across the park square, then landed in a western tree:
My friend and I watched F2 preen and relax and watch squirrels.
All of a sudden I noticed several pigeons scattering like crazy in the distance (a tell-tale sign that there may be a Hawk around). I was shocked to see that it was the other fledgling who was causing the pigeon panic. It was chasing the pigeons (at one point low to the ground) before landing in a tree:
The fledgling (F1) had flown and chased so strongly. It is a lot more advanced than F2 which is not surprising since it has a week’s more experience flying and boldly exploring.
F1 in a new tree:
Off to another one:
I found it nice that it was perching on two of Bobby’s favorite branches.
F2 flew to a tree my friend and I were standing under and settled down to preen again:
Hello:
F2 would become mesmerized watching every creature that got relatively close to it (i.e., a squirrel and small birds in its trees and squirrels on the ground).
Both fledglings looked pretty relaxed so my friend and I made the painful decision to walk away from them.
My friend reported seeing both fledglings in the same trees 45 minutes later while passing through the park again so it was good we left when we did!