A long visit to Washington Square Park today paid off since there was a surprise appearance of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk and I got to observe Bobby and Sadie having a nest switch.
A juvenile circled above the park square. It eventually flew directly to the adult Hawks’ favorite northwestern building perch:
It was a little pale in color and quite pretty:
It perched for nearly 10 minutes. It flew away and disappeared while I was checking my camera settings.
I checked on the nest as soon as I noticed the juvenile was gone. Sadie was in the nest, seemingly oblivious (or was disinterested maybe).
I didn’t see Bobby anywhere so the juvenile caught a good break and didn’t have to get thrown out of the park.
A Downy Woodpecker was banging away, leading me and a few other park-goers right to it:
Bobby showed up on One Fifth Avenue:
He flew south out of the park, circled above the eastern side of the park, then relieved Sadie of incubating duties:
She circled in front of One Fifth a few times then continued northward. I looked for her but she had slipped away. It had been a long outing for me so I slipped away myself.