Today was chock full of raptor activity in Washington Square Park. I spent an hour and a half following Bobby and other raptors around.
I spotted Bobby on One Fifth Avenue as soon as I arrived:
The park is coming up daffodils:
Cooper’s Hawk flying from east to west along 3rd Street (one block south of the park):
Springtime buds with the nest in the background:
A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk circled above 3rd Street later on then zoomed in the direction of the park but I lost him:
Bobby just come in to a landing at One Fifth again:
He flew away, disappeared, then brought new paper to the nest.
How I came to photograph his nest landing was fun. I was facing the opposite direction of the nest and was about to text an update to a Hawking friend when all of a sudden there was a loud shriek of bird cries, silence, a shadow over my shoulder, turn, Hawk going into nest!, camera up, click click click:
That was close!
Bobby exited the nest 3 minutes later:
He then flew about, circled higher and higher, then disappeared on me again.
Above the library (nest in the left-hand window):
Another One Fifth landing:
Looking over his domain:
Preening in the sun:
***
I had some delightful camera-less Hawk sightings over the last week. Last Saturday my better half and I were relaxing in the East Village’s “Miracle Garden” for a bit. I first saw a big shadow on the buildings across the street then looked up to see one of the Tompkins Square Park Hawks silently soar toward its park. It was fun to have that unexpected and brief sighting.
On Tuesday morning I had to be in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and saw a Red-tail circling overhead as soon as I exited the 81st Street subway station. It circled for a minute then tucked into a dive and landed in one of the Central Park trees across the street.
I then saw that it had landed on the same branch as another Red-tailed Hawk who was eating. The first Hawk left that Hawk to hopscotch to a couple of branches in another tree then disappear over the park. I had to rush to my errand so I left while the other Hawk continued eating.