The Washington Square Park Hawk baby fledged between 7:40PM last night (when a fellow Hawk-watcher last saw it) and 8:55AM this morning (when my friend was back at the park and noted the empty nest ledge).
Both parents were seen but the baby was nowhere to be found and wasn’t making a peep so locating it by sound was impossible. The fledglings usually cry and cry the first few days they are out of the nest.
I arrived at the park a few minutes after my friend had to leave for the day. I spent an exhausting 5 hours looking for the fledgling to no avail.
My friend was back at the park a few hours after I had left for the day and noticed Sadie returning to the same low building bordering the park so hopes are that the fledgling made its way there and will become visible (or even audible) from the street within a few days.
Sadie visiting the empty nest:
She flew out 3 minutes later then circled above the park.
Bobby flew into the nest 4 minutes later:
Bobby and Sadie soon circled low above the trees. I was wondering if they were looking for the fledgling but there was no way to know really.
Bobby landed on a building northeast of the park:
Sadie joined him:
They sat together for a few minutes.
Bobby flew off first and hopscotched on different perches before returning to the nest:
Sadie landed on NYU’s Silver Center:
She was about to enter the nest but stopped and turned away (Bobby was still in the nest):
Bobby peeking from the nest:
Bobby remained in the nest for nearly two whole hours.
I then watched as he swooped down from the nest and land on one of the shorter buildings lining the eastern side of the park (NYU’s Pless building). He ate atop a regular Hawk ‘dinner table’.
I found it interesting that he was eating on a space typically reserved for feeding the fledglings each year.
He made his way to Silver Center and wiped up:
He disappeared on me after several minutes.
I asked several NYU buildings’ security guards and a park officer if they might have gotten any word of the fledgling getting injured or its whereabouts but no one knew anything.
I asked just in case there was a mishap (since it was unnerving to not know where the fledgling was located). I hope to have better Hawk luck tomorrow!