Washington Square Hawk fledglings scatter pigeons in & around park – July 7th, 2018

Two of the Washington Square Park Hawk fledglings spent some time scattering the pigeons at the western side of Washington Square Park during my visit. I haven’t seen them catch any of their own food to eat yet. They are still receiving dropped-off food by their parents Bobby and/or Sadie (as a Hawk-watching friend saw after I left the park today).

The first fledgling I saw today was sitting behind the base of the old church cross:

This Judson Memorial Church campanile tower was bought by NYU decades ago for dorm and office use but some of us still refer to it as the church tower. Its cross was removed last December and should get replaced when exterior renovations are complete.

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The fledgling’s sibling joined it 20 minutes later:

One of the youngsters flew low over the park, scattering pigeons.

The tower Hawk was alone for only a couple of minutes before it too dove down to the park and scattered its own pigeons.

I caught up with the second fledgling resting and preening in a tree:

Half an hour passed before I spotted Sadie circling high above the trees:

She circled a few times before disappearing.

Hello:

Another hour passed when all of a sudden the fledgling dove into a pigeon flock then landed in a distant tree:

It was full of energy. It dove into the pigeons a couple of more times from various trees:

It carried on in this way for 10 minutes before flying south out of the trees.

I was leaving the park and was a block south when I spotted a Hawk flying in the direction of the park from a roof top terrace popular with the Hawks.

I checked my archives for a picture of past fledglings sitting on this terrace. I saw that the fledglings from that 2014 post enjoyed many of the same perches from today (roof top terrace and church tower) and a recent outing (NYU’s Kimmel Center building).

I determined later by its chest markings that this Hawk was F1 (the first Hawk baby to fledge this season) and not the fledgling I had watched in the trees earlier in my visit.

Walking along the building top:

It flew from the building to the side of the church tower:

I watched it for 12 minutes before I tore myself away for good.

Parting shot:

A fellow Hawk-watcher informed me a few hours later that one of the fledglings was seen chasing pigeons on fire escapes and building tops a block south of the park.