Urban Hawks

I love when watching Red-tailed Hawks, you end up seeing a Peregrine Falcon and an American Kestrel have a territorial battles with the hawks.  One raptor gets you two more.  This happened this evening around Washington Square.

Bobby kept an eye on the Peregrine Falcon and Rosie got buzzed by the American Kestrel.

Both fledglings were hard to find until dusk.  One was spotted going between trees in the east side of the park, before going up to a building.  The other fedgling flew to the the Silver building from the library.  They’re getting used to maneuvering in trees, and are doing very well at gaining altitude and flying long distances.

The Fledglings seem to get more comfortable flying and landing each day.  The both appeared on the building east of the park this evening.  They put on a nice show.

Both appeared to roost in trees this evening.  Rosie has been spending a great deal of time hunting in the area around the fledglings.  It will be interesting to see if this year, the fledglings spend more time in the park than Pip did last year.

Viewers of the webcam got to see one of the fledglings return to the nest and get fed.  Returning to the nest by a fledgling doesn’t happen that often, as the nest is primarily a nursery rather than a home for Red-tailed Hawks.  But when it does, it’s fun to watch.

I saw both a fledgling and the mother, Rosie on the nest in the evening.  Highlights of the night included a miscalculated landing on the library by a fledgling.  It though it could land on a window ledge, but there wasn’t really a ledge, so it floated down to a ledge on the second floor of the library.  Luckily, it looked much more dangerous than it turned out to be.

The fledglings ventured into the trees, and it is possible that one may have roosted in a tree for the evening but it was hard to tell for sure.

Today, I arrived in the park to see both parents soaring above the park and perching together on the west side of the park.  I looked for the fledglings on that side of the park, but couldn’t find them so I returned to the east side of the building.

After about twenty minutes, Rosie (the adult female) appeared and brought a bird to one of the fledglings.  We watched Rosie help the fledgling eat, which was unexpected at this date.

After the meal, the other fledgling appeared on the same, high south side Silver railing.  They stayed together like bookend at opposite sides of the railing.

The fledglings were really having fun on the buildings to the east side of Washington Square Park this evening.  Both were exploring the buildings and doing very well at flying and landing.  The buildings and locations are the same ones Pip used last year, bringing back fond memories.