Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Bobby and Rosie of Washington Square Park--More To Come

Bobby looks down at the plethora of prey in Washington Square Park. He hunts relentlessly.
And all the while, people are going about their business or starring at him, of which he takes very little notice.
Washington Square Park, like the southern portion of Central Park, has a genetic pool of black squirrels. They appear to have their own territory which is currently within a construction zone.
Now he's atop a building checking out the prey.

But there have also been Peregrine Falcons around so is sheltering himself also behind...
...the facade of a building, which helps to obscure his shape against the sky from view.
Something toward the center of the park suddenly piques his interest.
He's up....
Wings get ready for action.
And he's GONE!
What's this? A hawk on the corner of the Bobst.
Bobby takes off from his hunting perch in the tree and I loose him in the twigs.
But then I see a hawk flying across the unencumbered sky. Same hawk, different hawk?
One of the Red-tails lands on the nest ledge of the Bobst Library. At first I thought this was Bobby as he, I'd been told, was the hawk we'd been following for most of the day, but then I began to wonder. Perhaps Rosie had slipped in when we weren't paying attention.
Why? Because the hawk sat down into the bowl of the nest. Females around this time of year are often checking out the bowl of the nest for it's comfort quotient. They are the ones who spend an inordinate amount of time sitting there after all.

Lola, Pale Male's previous mate wasn't all that interested in trigging for the nest itself but she was quite particular about what went into the bowl, and chose those materials herself. Then she would sit down and appeared to be taking the comfort level into consideration, so perhaps this is Rosie doing the same.

She then rose back up after a few moments, checked the perimeter and took off.
Ah ha! Now both hawks are in view, one on the flagpole...
And the other on the corner of the building.

Much more to come!!!

Donegal Browne

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