Secret Hawk perch, fledgling in a tree – June 26th, 2019

It was another long day of Hawk-watching with few results besides discovering a new Hawk perch.

The day started out with Juno, the new male Hawk, sitting on one of the southeast NYU flag poles:

Another angle:

I saw Juno sit on that perch for an hour and fifteen minutes while I searched other areas of the park for yesterday’s released fledgling.

Juno flew across the park and went behind the One Fifth Avenue apartment building:

I waited a few seconds to see him appear from behind the other side of the building. He didn’t appear so I figured he must have found a perch there so I went looking for him. It took me several minutes but I finally spotted him sitting on the north-facing facade.

He shone like a bright tooth against the building:

By comparing Juno’s perch with the main picture of the building from this post, I’d say he was sitting on the 18th floor. I’ve never seen one of the Hawks sit mid-building like this on the north side so that was pretty neat.

He was looking up at something:

I turned to see what he might be watching but nothing jumped out at me from my vantage point.

Nothing was happening for several minutes so I figured I’d take pictures of the sparrow nests in the scaffolding near me:

And wouldn’t you know Juno was gone when I looked back toward him. And I had no idea which direction he flew.

I took the opportunity to search 7th Avenue for the fledgling that was last seen at 7th Avenue and 11th Street. I looked in that area for close to an hour but did not see or hear that fledgling or mama Sadie Hawk. I was hoping Sadie would be there to indicate she was near that fledgling but she too was nowhere to be seen.

I returned to the park to look for the other Hawks.

I saw the pigeon I’ve nicknamed Dover. He was foraging near the bench I was sitting on. He moved so close to me, it felt like running into a celebrity!

It was 2 1/2 hours later when Juno reappeared, circling over the area just east of the park:

He zoomed over to the same flag pole I saw him on at the start of my visit:

I left for the day but a fellow Hawk-watcher from NYU let me know he saw the fledgling sitting in a tree a couple of blocks east of the park (at Mercer and West 4th Street) in a tree. The fledgling was reported to be at times relaxed and other times alert and active.