Nap time for the Washington Square Hawks – May 31st, 2019

I visited Washington Square Park right before the Hawk babies and Mama Sadie Hawk took one of their naps.

One of the youngsters was sitting up and looking awfully sleepy:

Settling down for a nap:

I walked around the park once all the Hawk babies were down and out of sight.

I think this was an American Painted Lady butterfly:

I had seen a few of these beautiful butterflies on May 6th.

Several park trees were wrapped with yellow caution tape:

This was because of a terrible accident that happened on Monday, May 20th. A woman got seriously hurt by a tree limb that fell on her as she sat on a park bench. The tree was suffering from a fungus that weakened that limb. You can read more about this accident in this New York Post article. There are reports that her condition is beginning to get better, thankfully.

I gather those marked trees will get reviewed and any dangerous limbs and trees removed quickly. In the meantime I’ll do my best to avoid walking underneath those trees.

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that there is a tree growing out of one of the NYU building’s gutters. It’s grown a fair amount since then:

This American Painted Lady butterfly was upside down:

There were tons of honey and bumble bees on the flowers as well. The park wildlife is really humming now.

This handsome devil was resting on the same lawn I watched a pigeon napping on May 25th:

Another resting pigeon a couple of lawns away:

I was worried I wouldn’t see Sadie today. I was making one last sweep of the park before leaving when all of a sudden she appeared and landed on One Fifth. Unfortunately I was not fully focused on her when she landed:

Sadie preened and rested. A Turkey Vulture soared by her building 3 minutes after she landed:

The Turkey Vulture was joined by another one shortly after. They both circled near Sadie’s building for a couple of minutes before traveling north together:

Sadie was unmoved by their presence. She continued to preen and otherwise look over her territory.

One of the babies up and alert. I think it was looking right at her:

It turned and made a few flaps before settling down again:

Sadie preened some more then laid down flat on the ledge:

Here she is lying down, facing the building with the tip of her left wing on the left, her head in the middle, and the tip of her right wing sticking out over the ledge on the right:

She laid down even flatter than that on her perch. I wonder how many times I have looked for the Hawks on those ledges but didn’t think they were there because they were laid out flat for a nap!