Last night (the 9th) was the first time in a long time that I’ve visited Washington Square Park at dusk/night. I was curious about the nature of their night hunting routine these days.
Bobby was the first Hawk I spotted. He was on the Judson Memorial Church cross (Bobst Library to the left):
Sadie was on a western building topper. Both Hawks were in sight of each other.
Bobby leapt off the cross and dove into the eastern trees:
The lighting and lack of leaves made it possible for me to see where he landed. Pigeons and sparrows scattered when he dove toward the tree.
Leg kick-out:
He moved from tree to tree, spending a couple of minutes on each tree before moving on to the next.
He flew across the park square and dove to the lawn on the west side of the park but didn’t catch anything:
Sadie was gone from her perch so it was all about Bobby for the rest of my stay.
A regular squirrel/rat feeder made her rounds leaving nuts and water at the base of trees:
When Bobby flew to a tree overlooking the squirrels she was feeding she screamed at him to go away.
She moved on to leave food at other trees.
He dove at what I think was a rat near the northern fence line but didn’t grab hold of it so he continued his flight. He landed on a street lamp right outside the park and faced in the direction of the arch:
It became too dark to hunt so he turned and flew straight up 5th Avenue:
I followed his path as much as I could but never saw where he wound up roosting. I checked the Red Roost Inn to see if he flew there but no Hawk was there.
A fellow Hawk-watcher spotted one of the Hawks there a couple of weeks ago so we know it’s still in use.