Month: July 2015

I spent two hours looking for the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks today but found none unfortunately.

I walked from WSP to Union Square Park then back down to WSP again to no avail. Not seeing any Hawks isn’t all that unusual but in light of the dead fledgling found yesterday, it cast a rather grim tone to my visit.

I just received the word from Urban Park Ranger Rob Mastrianni who was called to pick up a dead juvenile Red-tailed Hawk at 4th Avenue and 9th Street, which is a few blocks northeast from Washington Square Park.

The street map below shows the corner of the park on the left and the intersection where the juvenile was found on the right:

He will have contacted the Horvaths of WINORR (Wildlife in Need of Rescue & Rehabilitation) by the time you read this post. A necropsy will be performed on the fledgling but so far it appears that the death may have been caused by physical trauma (perhaps a crash into a building). I will post any updates I may receive on the outcome of the necropsy.

Some of the Tompkins Square Park Hawk-watchers and bloggers have been notified so that they may keep an eye out to see if perhaps one of their fledglings is missing. The intersection where the fledgling was found is right at the boundary between both Hawk families’ territories.

A fellow WSP Hawk-watcher who is in the vicinity now just told me they were watching one fledgling and (most likely) Sadie on a building at 5th Avenue and 12th Street (a few blocks from where the dead fledgling was found). That building is a regular hangout spot for the WSP Red-tailed Hawks. So in any case, at least one WSP fledgling is accounted for at the moment.

-7:30PM

*Update: The results of the necropsy are discussed in this post.

I’m a bit tied up with project deadlines and we’re at the start of another heat wave so my Hawking may be curtailed for a few days.

However, I received some welcome news this morning as a fellow Hawk-watcher reported seeing both Washington Square Park fledglings.