Yesterday I was at Washington Square Park for six hours like a silly goose because I got antsy and wanted to be there in case the baby Hawk fledged. Ha!
Instead, it apparently fledged around 5:30 this morning. I do have photos from yesterday’s visit I may post as bonus pics in the near future. You can watch the archived Hawk cam footage of the fledge here!
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This morning when I got to the park Sadie was on a Silver Center flag pole and Bobby was sitting on the facade railing:
Handsome Bobby:
An Osprey made a surprise visit for a few turns over the Hawks before moving northward:
Sadie moved to a water tower and was overlooking the fledgling but we weren’t aware at the time:
Both adult Hawks didn’t get up, circle, then move northeast until 2 1/2 hours after I arrived.
Bobby:
I was walking along the eastern side of the park when I noticed a discoloration on an iron platform in the distance. It was the fledgling!
I found it at about 12:43PM so it had been out and about for 7 hours already. It looked quite well. It was relaxed on a water tower base across the street from Silver Center.
A pair of House Finches were paying it a visit (as they regularly do with the Hawks):
Stretch:
It then spent the next hour and a half preening, sunning, and hopping about its jungle gym:
It leapt off the platform and flew out of sight:
I walked all over the park to try to get a view of where it might have gone but luckily for all of us it returned to the same platform half an hour later.
I found a cozier view on one of the park lawns from which to watch the fledgling. The difference in perspective was striking:
More fun:
The Finches came back (the Hawk is on the right):
The fledgling cavorted in this way for 40 minutes before having an extended flight northward:
About to fly past one of the Hawk ‘dinner tables’:
The fledgling continued flying alongside the tree line but the foliage blocked our view of where it went next. We searched for it for close to an hour but struck out but that was fine. It felt like a good time to leave the park due to the heat, the busyness of the park (there were hundreds of people there because of a festival), and overall exhaustion. 🙂
Cheers to the little Hawk for a great fledge!