A fellow Hawk-watcher from NYU let me know they saw the fledgling which was released on the 25th chasing birds this morning before perching on a few structures at Mercer and 4th Street. She did a great job of swooping and making u-turns in the sky. She then descended to a low NYU rooftop on the corner.
Mama Sadie Hawk was sitting on the same flag pole Juno was when I arrived yesterday:
She was looking in the direction of where the fledgling was last seen. Sadie disappeared about 45 minutes after I arrived.
4th Street was busy with road work. A large crew was laying asphalt the whole time I was there. The sound was tremendous and the air was acrid from the hot asphalt. Combine all that with today’s heat and it made for an uncomfortable situation so I have tons of respect for the guys and gals who had to endure those conditions.
A quick pass through the park bore me no Hawk sightings but I did see Dover milling about on an eastern lawn I’ve seen him at several times in the past:
The same NYU Hawk friend told me they could see the fledgling on that low structure; a power plant at the corner of Mercer and 4th. I could not see the bird from the street but the Hawk was sitting to the right of the black steam exhaust pipe in the photo below:
I researched this power plant when I got home and discovered that this is the visible part of a cogeneration plant that was completed in 2011. Most of the plant is located underground along Mercer Street.
The stats of this engineering project are impressive and I hope you will check out this overview article about the plant here. This page from the engineer, Vanderweil Power Group, shows pictures of the interior of the plant while this page shows the progress of the construction of this underground facility.
All I could see from the outside (facing it from 4th street, looking southwest):
And my view from NYU’s Gould Plaza, adjacent to the plant (looking east):
This is the view of the fledgling as she sat atop this structure:
Wings outstretched during a sun bath:
Preening:
Napping?
I had been home for a few hours when an NYU contact told me they saw one of the adult Hawks land on NYU buildings overlooking the fledgling (Warren Weaver Hall and the Education Building). The Hawk looked down at the fledgling then visited her a couple of times before flying out and away from her low rooftop. It’s not known right now if the visiting Hawk was Sadie or Juno or if food was dropped off or not.
The adult hawk was probably Sadie. Juno is not likely to care for by visiting or drop off food for these babies who are not his. Logical?
Yes, that might be a reasonable assumption if the adult was actually delivering food. But we don’t know that to be the case.
As I mentioned, “It’s not known right now … if food was dropped off or not.”
Sadie does visit and tend to the fledglings, but Juno also ‘visits’ the fledglings, sometimes benignly, sometimes aggressively.
In this particular instance, the interaction between the adult and fledgling was not visible from the viewer’s vantage point on the sidewalk (the fledgling was hidden from view behind some of the rooftop equipment) so right now there’s really no way to know which adult it might have been and what occurred during those brief visits.