Hawks mate and hopscotch uptown – March 12th, 2020

A fellow Hawk-watcher and I weren’t having any Hawk luck in Washington Square Park so we headed up toward Union Square Park to look for them.

The bee nest at Union Square is holding up well:

We looked around a bit for the Hawks but weren’t seeing them so we headed back to Washington Square.

We were on University Place and 11th Street when I spotted a Hawk on a distant water tower!

It was Sadie. Her water tower was on a building sitting along 5th Avenue.

Scratch:

She flew off 3 minutes after she was first spotted:

We caught up with her as she sat on the base of a water tower tucked back from 5th Avenue:

Off after 2 minutes:

She and Juno passed overhead as we were walking along 14th Street. They had come from just north of us.

Sadie:

There was some perch hopscotching until they landed on separate water towers:

Juno’s scrunch and spring:

He flew past Sadie then returned and mated with her:

A smaller bird (I think a Peregrine Falcon) dive-bombed them but not too aggressively:

It’s pretty neat to consider all this raptor action can happen any time of day above busy 5th Avenue.

Juno flew eastward. Sadie then followed him.

Juno:

They looked like they were flying toward Union Square Park so we followed.

It was lucky that we did because Sadie appeared there.

Flying toward the W Hotel:

Changing her mind and flying east instead:

We lost sight of her behind some buildings. We couldn’t find her (or Juno) so that was that for the day.