Fledgling’s first full day out – June 17th, 2018

Today’s outing must have been a record-breaker for me. I was out Hawking in Washington Square Park for 12 hours to follow the fledgling, observe the Hawk parents, and wait for the other two Hawk babies to fledge. It was all worth it though because there were many memorable events.

The first Hawk I saw was papa Bobby as he flew to and then landed on one of the flag poles. He rested and preened:

The nest babies would rest and then pep up and do some impressive jump flaps along the ledge:

I found the fledgling an hour after I had arrived. It was on a water tower on an eastern building:

It hopped up and down the structure:

Running down the side:

It then flew to a new building with great agility:

One of the nest babies looked like it was watching its sibling:

Splayed out, sunning:

The fledgling on its new building:

It walked, hopped, and flew about the structure like a jungle gym. This building top seems to be an attractive one for the Hawks. A few other past years’ fledglings have jumped about that building too.

The fledgling then flew rather high and landed on an unknown location:

I went back to watching the nesters:

Some more fun:

The Hawks settled down until I saw mama Sadie Hawk on a corner building:

It wasn’t long until I heard loud Hawk chirping. I looked up in anticipation and saw as Sadie landed in the tree next to me and a few other Hawk-watchers!

She had a sparrow in her clutches:

I’ve mentioned before that the Hawk adults often chirp when they have prey for their babies.

She leapt off her tree and went to the fledgling’s building where she fed it some of the sparrow:

She then went to the nest and fed the rest of the bird to the nest Hawks:

Bobby delivered a rat meal to the nest 35 minutes later:

The fledgling explored some more:

Almost slipping:

Bobby keeping guard above the fledgling:

The fledgling looked like it was doing its best Arnold Schwarzenegger Mr. Universe impression (pectorals and all):

Later on it flew across the street and landed on a building window sill:

It stayed on this building for almost an hour until it flew back to its favorite building:

It was a relief to see it fly away ok and not get stuck on a window sill for days as past fledglings have done.

Curiously, the fledgling returned to the building later on:

Sunset was deepening and all of a sudden we saw a Hawk fly over the nest building and into the tree near us. It was the fledgling!

It couldn’t get proper footing so it stumbled about and slipped on some branches before flying further west. We couldn’t see where it went but we suspected it landed in a neighboring tree.

Bobby fed the nest kids one last time before night fell:

The two young ones were doing so much jump-flapping we were certain they would fledge but it was not meant to be. Perhaps tomorrow!