It was a beautiful spring day in Washington Square Park. I tore myself away from the live nest cam and checked on the Hawks for about an hour and a half.
Sadie was nowhere to be seen at first but then appeared on an east-side flag pole. This pole is on a building where she can look over the nest and the whole park.
It wasn’t long before a Blue Jay came over and yelled at her while dive-bombing her:
Sadie yelled back:
A second Jay showed up and joined the other to harass Sadie:
She could only take 4 minutes of their bullying before she flew away from them:
She rose higher and higher in the sky. I thought it was mysterious until I spotted a second Hawk flying near her. It was a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk. It all started to make sense; she was ushering the youngster away from her territory.
This young Hawk had a gap in its tail feathers. It reminded me of the young Hawk I saw on January 12th in my neighborhood who had a similar feather gap but it’s impossible to know if it was the same bird.
The two Hawks separated. Sadie perched on the tall One Fifth Avenue building shortly afterward:
She leapt down toward low buildings lining the northern border of the park:
That was it for my Hawk sightings for the day.
I was tempted to study the several migrating warblers and butterflies nearby but I didn’t want to miss catching Sadie return to the nest.
One of the butterflies, an American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis), landed on the lawn right in front of me so that was awfully nice:
I gave up waiting for Sadie to return.
A hopeful squirrel watched me leave, eyeing me to see if I had treats for it:
Thanks for the pics,Roger_Paw.
Good to be able to step into the park , if only in the virtual sense.
I enjoyed your description of Sadie “escorting” the young hawk out of her territory…too much a lady to”kick him out”
A wondrous butterfly in your lens!
Thank you, Jeanne! It was a glorious spring day and the park creatures were super active. 🙂
The pics of the bluejays are awesome. It looks as if they’re only chatting together. The clarity of the squirrel pic is very professional. Love them.
Thank you! It’s pretty cool how much interactive wildlife there is in this small city park.
Hi Roger Paw. I followed and enjoyed your blog for years and was sorry there was no way to communicate with you on the blog so I am delighted with this comment section. I once lived near Washington Square (Bobby and Violet sometimes even perched on my terrace!)but now I reside uptown. So I greatly appreciate your website and photos since I rarely get downtown to see the hawks in person. However, a question. I thought Sadie was the last mom and the current one is Aurora. That is the name the chat people on the NYU stream (where I lurk) call her. Again, thanks for all your efforts for these wonderful creatures.
Thanks, Marietta! Wow, you were so lucky to have had the Hawks on your terrace. Sadie is the same Hawk that paired up with Bobby in 2015 (after Rosie disappeared). I refer to her as Sadie in honor of the Horvaths of Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation (WINORR) who have been so wonderful in helping the Hawks throughout the years. Sadie is their daughter’s name.
Thanks. That explains it. The Horvaths certainly deserve recognition.