Washington Square Hawk fledglings soar to new heights – July 13th, 2018

Today was one of those ‘epic’ visits to Washington Square Park where the Red-tailed Hawk fledglings amazed and delighted me with their advancement. They circled several times over the park with great agility, did some acrobatics on an apartment building roof, circled and soared extremely high above the park, and landed on the top of One Fifth Avenue.

The day started out with a fledgling resting then chasing pigeons for a few minutes:

Trying to balance on a thin branch:

It flew to another tree where it was hidden so well, all you could see were its feet:

Popping out of the greenery and then flying out of the park to an NYU building across the street:

It flew back to the park, flying very low over the park arch at first:

It circled over the park several times before I lost sight of it:

I then saw a fledgling sitting higher on One Fifth than the adult Hawks do (above the ledges the adults like to perch on).

Corner of the park arch in the foreground:

I noticed a bird sitting on the corner of a building further north of the park and thought it looked a bit big to be a pigeon. I zoomed in just as it was flying off its perch. It was one of the other fledglings! I realized later that it was F1.

It cried as it flew:

It landed on a roof heat vent of the Two Fifth Avenue apartment building (across the street from the first fledgling’s perch).

The higher fledgling saw its sibling and descended right to it. It wasn’t long before a Kestrel appeared and flew above them to harass them:

The Kestrel made a couple of passes overhead then moved on.

Another view of the two fledglings on their vent:

One of the youngsters then had a fine time flying to and landing on the alternate ladder tips and heat vent several times:

It settled down next to its sibling. They both then spent the next hour preening and sunning together.

It was definitely F1 (the first Hawk baby to have fledged this season) seated on the right:

The other fledgling noticed something in the park below and dove after it:

Tucked in like a bullet:

I didn’t see what it was chasing. F1 followed. The two fledglings then circled above the park trees before one of them flew further north and the other landed on the very top of One Fifth Avenue:

Its sibling flew right by it and over the park square. They then both joined up again to circle over the park:

They then astonished me by flying higher and higher until I could hardly see them anymore.

One of them disappeared southward. The other moved in as though it were going to land on the top of One Fifth but changed its mind:

It instead landed on another building’s heat vent more northeast of the park. You can see the side of One Fifth Avenue on the left and the top of the park arch in the foreground:

A smaller bird (I think a Blue Jay) came over and landed below the fledgling.

The two birds then spent the next few minutes playing a cat-and-mouse game:

The smaller bird flew safely away from the fledgling. The Hawk stayed put so I left the park to search for the third fledgling.

I did not definitively spot it. I did spot a Hawk circling west of the garden located south of the park where I saw one of the fledglings a few days ago but I was too far away to positively identify it.