I had a fine visit with the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks today.
I saw Bobby atop the Judson Memorial Cross as soon as I arrived.
He flew off 15 minutes after I first spotted him:
He landed in one of the eastern trees. A fellow Hawk-watcher was in the park earlier and spotted a Hawk on One Fifth Avenue. I checked and the Hawk was still there. It was Sadie:
Bobby moved from one tree to another before settling down:
Pigeons from the western side of the park flew into a panic for some reason and moved to Bobby’s side of the park. A few of the birds were going to land near Bobby but quickly changed their minds when they saw him (he is seated behind the pigeon on the right):
Sadie flew off One Fifth and headed straight to one of the flag poles:
Bobby eventually went into hunting mode and dove toward a rodent:
It only took a few seconds for him to eat it up:
Wiping his beak:
I headed over to to him and noticed Sadie was off her perch. I spotted her circling over the eastern side of the park:
Bobby:
I guess the tiny rodent wasn’t enough because Bobby found another one to eat.
He flew so quickly and so close to me I didn’t have time to switch camera settings to compensate for his closeness.
Meal in ‘hand’:
His meal was so tiny, he was already finished by the time I reached his new tree.
Wiping up again:
He rested for a bit. He was distracted by something in the sky. I thought he was entranced by a hovering news helicopter but it turned out to be a juvenile Red-tail flying around:
The juvie flew around the border of the park and disappeared south over the library.
Bobby flew off and made his way above the park, circling several times:
He landed on a building bordering the southern edge of the park:
Sadie appeared after a few minutes and flew past him:
Bobby followed her and circled the sky with her for a couple minutes.
You might be able to see a sea gull even higher than the hawks in the photo above.
Sadie disappeared and Bobby flew too high to photograph after a while so I left for the day.
It shouldn’t be long before the Hawks begin gathering twigs for the nest if they haven’t started already. Time flies and they’ll be prepping for next spring’s breeding season before we know it!