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

Hawks in their high seats, young Hawk visits the park – January 27th, 2020

I spent the first 20 minutes of my Washington Square Park visit searching for the banded Hawk but did not see it.

Juno was the first Red-tailed Hawk I saw today.

He flew low along the buildings then landed on the old Judson Church cross:

He got dive-bombed by a kestrel a few times as he sat on the cross. He flew off the cross after 4 minutes.

He was accosted by a kestrel as he flew over the park trees. It was a brief encounter. Juno had to get into a defensive posture a couple of times but he was never in danger. Kestrels are so tiny in comparison to Red-tails.

He landed on the red tile roof a couple of blocks north of the park:

Juno was quite relaxed so I walked away after 10 minutes to look for other raptors.

I had moved only a few feet when I saw Sadie in the distance as she landed on NYU’s Silver Center roof railing:

She flew off after a minute and circled over the east side of the park. Juno then joined her in the sky.

They circled over the eastern buildings for a couple minutes:

Sadie flew north and Juno flew east.

They then flew to the Con Edison tower one after the other.

A third Hawk flew near them as they perched on the tower.

Sadie and Juno might be a little difficult to see but they’re hunched down on the tower top:

Sadie and Juno more obvious when sitting up:

I watched them sit on the tower for 15 minutes before I walked away to look for the banded Hawk again.

I saw a Hawk flying over the park square and got so excited this may be him.

However, delightfully, it was a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk!

It circled higher and higher then dove west of the park:


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