I was walking to Washington Square Park this morning when a fellow Hawk-watcher confirmed that the second Hawk baby fledged early this morning. I watched the archived nest cam footage of the second fledge when I got home. The video is below. As an FYI, the footage randomly stops and starts because of internet issues the folks behind the cam stream had when the action was being recorded:
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Another Hawk-watcher told me the first fledgling received a meal atop an east side building around 8:20AM.
As I approached Broadway and 4th Street I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a corner building:
I thought it might be Bobby because I’d seen him on that exact perch a few years ago so I was surprised to see it was Sadie! She was being mobbed by three Mockingbirds:
Landing on a ledge along the other side of the building:
Sadie flew over Broadway then turned back and landed on another corner of the building:
I was tempted to stay and watch her but opted to go right to the park to look for the fledglings and check on the remaining nest Hawk.
It was mostly subdued but did have bouts of jump-flaps across the ledge:
Sadie returned to the park while I was watching the nest baby.
Someone in the NYU President’s office watched the little Hawk for a few minutes:
I spent the next couple of hours both looking for fledgling 1 (F2) and 2 (F2) and returning to the nest baby. I did not find either fledgling at first.
I spotted Sadie on NYU’s Silver Center building:
I thought she might be looking over a fledgling so I got closer and saw that she was definitely watching something below her:
It was indeed a fledgling! I looked closer at its markings when I got home and saw that it was F2 (the fledgling that had left the nest earlier this morning):
Hello?
The babe would cry sometimes then hop onto other branches. This went on for around 45 minutes. F2 settled down on a branch and Sadie laid down for a nap:
I liked the contrast between her tail feathers and the stone motif:
The nest baby hopping about half an hour later:
A fellow Hawk-watcher saw one of the adult Hawks fly past the building about half an hour later. It turned out to be Bobby. We watched as he flew with food in his talons over the southwest side of the park then land on the old Judson Memorial Church cross tower:
He got mobbed by Mockingbirds:
He then circled low over the park with the meal then brought it to the nest:
The next 3 hours went by pretty uneventfully. I went back to F2 while it was getting active again:
I noticed Sadie on Shimkin, the southeast corner building:
Another Hawk-watcher then spotted F1 on top of her building!
Sadie flew into the nest and started fussing with the pigeon Bobby had dropped off 5 hours earlier. Bobby then flew into the nest as well:
He left the nest with a bit of an old meal in his beak:
Sadie soon followed, toting the rest of the pigeon meal:
She flew east on 4th Street with it. We assumed she took it to either eat or feed to the fledglings.
I stayed in the park for several more minutes to see if the nest baby would fledge but it really didn’t look like it was ready to make the leap. Sure enough, it stayed in the nest until it became too dark to fledge.
As always, thanks for these magnificent shots.
Thank you, Mary! I look forward to seeing the Hawks again today. 🙂
Thank you for the magnificent shot of the Fledgling in the tree…I could count talons and twigs…amazing.
I saw the Fledgling return to the nest today seeking food and was astounded at the fly-in
Ruby was making a drop off of pigeon and the previously fledged Hawk hi-jacked the delivery.
Confusion ensued , but quieted down when the Fledgling mantled the meal and proceed to devour it all!
Roger, what season of Hawks was it , when one newly fledged chick landed on a parked vehicle (UPS TRUCK?)
and slipped to the street w/o injury. I remember , he was rescued and later told he was “good to go”
Until this family of Hawks has settled, the days are exciting and nerve wracking in the adventure watching.
Thank you for all the coverage and indescribable pictures.
Hi, Jeanne. That incident was in 2013! The post from that day is here.
Thanks for the opportunity to watch again the “Perils of the Fledgling” in 2013.
Poor little hawk’s tongue was actually hanging outside the beak.
11 and 1/2 hours of watching and photographing the adventures was indeed a day and a half of work for you in this episode of Hawks’ Adventures.
You are generous in all you do for the hawks and their fans.
Do any of the groups who extend care to the Hawks accept donations? Do you accept donations for film, etc ( your camera probably does not use “film” , but having no knowledge of cameras, I do not know what product is used to capture the wonderful antics of our beautiful Hawks
It really was a rough day for all of us!
The rehabilitation duo that have helped the Washington Square Hawks are WINORR (Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation). They accept donations on their GoFundMe page and by check. I do accept donations too. There’s a donate button on the home page. Thank you!
As always, thanks for watching and photographing ‘our’ hawks! We have a nest near my house, that gets used year after year. We have early morning yoga outside at 0630, the hawks wake up not long after. I have everybody trained to stop and watch these beautiful creatures soaring on the breeze.
There appears to be another family that I frequently see in the sky, but they live further away, closer to the Chatahoochee River. My hawks are also near the river, with the other family being probably 1/2 mile to the left – lots of woods.
Unfortunately, there is a 800 home subdivision planned for the area where I believe the other family resides.
I hope the other family, and all the deer, foxes, badgers, the occasional mountain lions, etc, survive the destruction of their habitat. All of this right outside Atlanta!
What a beautiful scene you describe, Karen! Thank you for sharing that.
I had to stop myself from gripping the table edge when the little one jumped onto the very edge of the nest! I wonder what goes on in their heads just before they fledge. Thrilling and awesome each time.
Those edge jumps are too extreme for me to handle too lol!