Urban Hawks

I caught up with one of the Washington Square Park fledglings at 3rd Street and Broadway with the help of some American Robins, who were not happy to have a predator in their neighborhood.  Their alarm calls helped me find the youngster on Hayden Hall.  

The fledgling I saw looked well fed, and was doing a good job of maneuvering between various building locations.

The map below details sightings for the day:

1. Hayden Hall window sills and a nearby tree at 3rd Street and Broadway
2. A ledge across 3rd Street
3. Hayden Hall’s Roof
4. Education Building Flagpole (mother) and roof (new male)
5. Building on Mercer Street and Washington Place, where a fledgling was sighted earlier in the day and where the mother perched
6. Air conditioner where mother first brought a pigeon and then used as a perch

For context, N. is the nest location and P. the Pless Building roof.

The aggressive behavior of the new male has been a concern since two of the fledglings were pushed of the Washington Square Park nest. Having arrived at the nest very late in the nesting period, the new male seems to view the young hawks as competitors rather than young to protect and raise.  So the behavior I saw today was comforting.  For the most part he left they eyasses along, except when they were brought food by the mother.   Then from what I saw, he would got close to a fledgling, but the mother would intervene and he would back off.

So, while not ideal, his confusion does not look like it is putting the fledglings at risk right now.  That’s comforting.   While I’d like to be an impartial observer and let nature take its course, I really would like to see fledglings to do well this season.

I visited Washington Square Park twice, once in the early afternoon and once in the late afternoon until dark.

In the early afternoon, I saw one of the fledglings on the western side of the park in a London Plane tree.  It was most likely the second fledgling.  She looked healthy and made soft cries, something you would expect from a fledgling at this age.  The male was initially on 2 Fifth Avenue with the mother on 1 Fifth Avenue.  Later he joined her on 1 Fifth Avenue.

In the late afternoon, I couldn’t relocate the fledgling who had been the London Plane.  (This is fairly normal.  During normal years, where both parents survive, you commonly only get to find only one or two of the fledglings on a visit to the park.)

After feeling like I wasn’t going to see a fledgling in the afternoon, the mother was spotted bringing a pigeon to a fledgling on the Shimkin building.  It is the same corner as the Library where the nest is and also shares the corner with Goddard Hall, one of the buildings where two of the fledglings have been using the roofs.

The fledgling got to eat alone and in peace for a long period of time.  After it was done eating, the male was aggressive twice.   The mother intervened, and everything was fine.

The mother eat some of the leftover pigeon, and brought it to the Pless roof, where we think it was given to another fledgling.  (We had heard one cry from the roof, when the first one was brought the pigeon initially.)

Shimkin’s windows have fishing line at the window ledges to prevent pigeons from perching on the building.  One year a fledgling got caught in the for about half an hour.  Luckily, this fledgling did not get caught in them today.  If you have a high resolution monitor you’ll see them in the video.

So for now, it looks like the confused behavior of the male, which right now only seems to be triggered when he sees a fledgling with food, appears that it will not prevent the fledglings from getting fed.  While not ideal, it looks like the situation will be manageable by the mother.

I came to the park to look for the third Washington Square Park fledgling this morning.  Without my knowing, the woman behind the excellent RogerPaw.com blog had already canvased the staff of the buildings along the southern side of the park, and found that the fledgling who was on a terrace of the Kimmel building. She arranged for the WINORR rehabber, Bobby Horvath to come move it to a better location.  Kudos to them both.  The fledgling had ended up on a two foot wide ledge with a glass terrace wall on one side and the wall of the Catholic Center on the other side.  The bird was relocated to a roof on the west side of the park, near where the first fledgling was seen late on Sunday night.

The third fledgling was examined by Bobby Horvath, and checked out just fine.  Photographs and video of the rescue are on the WINORR facebook page.

I saw the tail end of the rescue, when an attempt was made to also capture, examine and relocate the second fledgling who was nearby on another Kimmel terrace.  This fledgling managed to escape capture and made a nice flight into the park.

So, every hawk has been seen within the last 24 hours. My photographs are of the second fledgling and the adults.

WINORR- Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation, can always use donations.  If you’re grateful for the fantastic work they do, use the Paypal link on their Facebook page to show them your appreciation for their work.  Its under the “About” section of the page.

With all three off the nest, the adults shared a pigeon on the roof of the Pless Annex, were seen soaring together and in the early evening perched together on a building on Washington Square West.

About 20-30 minutes after the last fledge, the second bird to fledge, who had hung out in the same limb of the Ginkgo tree it landed in the day before, finally flew off.  It landed in a bush, branched very well to a conifer and then to a London Plane.  It slept for a bit and then flew across Washington Square South (4th Street) and landed in a tree across from the Skirball Center box office.

The new adult male forced the remaining eyass to fledge today at Washington Square Park. 

The mother brought food to the nest, dropped it off, and left.  The male went to the nest, and the mother returned to make sure the eyass could eat.  The new male then went quickly to the Pless roof, at a speed that made it look like it was being aggressive to the first fledgling, who was out of sight but could be heard occasionally.  When the mother went to Pless to intervine, the new adult male went back to the nest. 

I had just arrived at the park, but was able to get my camera out in time to photograph the fledge.