Red-tailed Hawk landing on nest, Bobst Library, NYU, New York City

Washington Square’s autumnal colors, nervous pigeons – November 4th, 2018

Washington Square is full of beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow colors now. I’ll have to bring one of my lenses capable of capturing more of the landscape next time I’m in the park.

Some of the plants looked like they were transitioning to autumnal colors themselves:

Washington Square Park plant turning orange and red

Washington Square Park autumn leaves on the ground against the curb

Yellow-throated Sparrows ate among fallen leaves:

Washington Square Park White-throated Sparrow on the lawn by autumn leaves

Fellow Hawk-watching friends of mine have seen the resident Hawks pretty much every day but I missed seeing them today. But I did see a flash of a Cooper’s Hawk chasing pigeons.

The panicked, scattered flight of one of the flocks tipped me off to a raptor’s presence:

Washington Square Park pigeon flock flying above the park trees

The pigeons gathered on top of the arch. The pigeons perch like this whenever there is a Hawk around so I stopped to wait to see if their pursuer would make an appearance:

Two rows of Washington Square Park pigeons sitting on the arch

Row of Washington Square Park pigeons sitting on top of the arch

Another swoop above the park before re-landing on the arch:

Washington Square Park pigeons flying above the park near an apartment building

Washington Square Park pigeons flying to and landing on the arch

They look like a jumble as they land but they always work out their seating arrangement:

Washington Square Park pigeons landing on the arch together

Washington Square Park pigeons landing on top of the arch

I did see the Cooper’s Hawk chase the pigeons before dashing into the trees but it moved too quickly for me to photograph! I had errands to run so I left the park after an hour and a half.


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