I only saw the Washington Square Park Red-tailed Hawks for an hour this morning but they put on quite a show in that brief time.
Sadie was on her southwestern building perch:
Blue Jays kept making warning cries in the western trees but I wasn’t seeing any raptor so I went to the park square and Bobby showed up after a few minutes:
Sadie joined him. Together they circled above the square and eastern side of the park several times:
Sadie:
They flew to the block south of the park. I was just about to leave the park to search for them when I turned around and saw them both on park flag pole perches. They can be so sneaky!
White-throated Sparrow looking well:
One of the Hawks flew north of the park and circled there for a few minutes before flying further away.
In the meantime the Blue Jays were still carrying on so I looked through the trees for what was bothering them. All of a sudden a Cooper’s Hawk flew out of the trees then dove at the pigeons on the park arch:
The Hawk didn’t catch anything and flew away. The pigeons acted nervously well after the Hawk left. The flock would freak out and fly together in tight formation as if they were being attacked even though there was no predator around. One of the Hawks was still on its flag pole but was keeping still.
Pigeons spilling over each other in a panic:
The remaining Red-tail eventually flew east away from the park so I left too.