We’re having quite a warm and humid spell in NYC these days. I found the Washington Square Park Hawk fledgling in its regular patch of trees. One of the adult Hawks was on an eastern flag pole at the moment.
She was panting from the heat and holding her wings slightly open for a cool down:
Hi:
A squirrel was on the lawn below her, really living it up rolling around and nibbling on dug up bits:
A Blue Jay dive-bombed the fledgling a couple of times but she didn’t get too disturbed by it. The squirrel sat up straight and alert when the Blue Jay called out that the Hawk was there. It was a few minutes before the squirrel relaxed and started rolling around on the ground again.
The fledgling intently watched pigeons that gathered underneath her tree.
Relocating in the same tree after half an hour:
Her eyes look like they are already starting to darken a little bit in color:
She settled onto a new branch to preen some more. It was around this time when a fellow Hawk-watcher let me know the adult Hawk was gone from the flag pole.
One of the pigeon flocks coming when called by a regular pigeon feeder:
More panting:
I left the park after another half hour.
As I was leaving the park I saw one of the adult Hawks back on the same flag pole from before which made for a nice bookend to the visit.