Red-tailed Hawk landing on nest, Bobst Library, NYU, New York City

At last! A full Hawk visit – August 8th, 2016

I visited Washington Square Park for a couple of hours on Saturday and saw no Hawks but today was totally different. I finally got to spend a solid two hours with Bobby and Sadie.

A fellow Hawk-watcher has seen Sadie and Bobby a few times over the last several days which was great news. The fledgling might have been one of the Hawks too. There was no sign of the fledgling during my visit today.

I first heard Sadie calling out over and over as she circled above the park:

There happened to be a nice big stick mysteriously lying on the ground by the arch which made me wonder if one of the Hawks dropped it there:

Sadie landed on a regular northwestern building. She was first harassed by Kestrels and then by a pair of Mockingbirds:

She had her eyes closed as though she were trying to have a nap:

She landed on a southern building then flew to the street one block south of the park.

I searched for her and didn’t find her but did spot Bobby on a regular dinner table lamp when I returned to the park. He had a pigeon kill with him:

Sadie reappeared and circled overhead, calling out again. Bobby watched her then started eating:

His meal lasted 20 minutes. Cleaning up:

He flew into the park trees.

A Blue Jay immediately set upon him and yelled and dive-bombed him a few times but he was unmoved:

Happy shake:

He flew to another tree before flying to the Hangman’s Elm at the northwestern corner of the park:

He didn’t get much rest in the new tree because a pair of Mockingbirds bothered him. They squawked and dive-bombed him several times.

His tree was below the building where Sadie was being bothered by a pair of Mockingbirds so it might have been the same pair!

Bobby took to the sky after 25 minutes of the abuse and circled above the western side of the park. He is molting quite a bit:

I soon lost sight of him so I wrapped it up for the day.


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