Tourists

A couple of visitors passed through Tompkins Square this last weekend.

This Peregrine falcon made a few circles over Avenue A before crossing the park and heading for the East River.





And this juvenile Cooper's hawk was just chilling on the south side of the park until Christo chased it away.









 

For anyone not familiar with Christo:

Hawk play-by-play

The Tompkins Square hawks have been active this week.  Sunday afternoon, Christo was mobbed by a gang of 10-20 squirrels as he sat in a tree near the flag pole.  He was chilling quietly, minding his own business, when the squirrels suddenly mobilized and swarmed the tree.  Christo tried to ignore them, but he got frazzled, got tangled in the branches, lost his balance and had to fly away.  I've seen numerous hawk-squirrel confrontations, but nothing like that.

Here he is with one of the bullies.



Monday saw some different action in the same tree.  Dora sat high on a branch while Christo made one pass by her and flew north, to 10th Street.  He circled around to Avenue A, then came straight back for the tree.  Here he is just after landing while Dora descends from her perch.



Then Christo leaps up to another branch and they do a little do-se-do.



Dora makes a hard landing while Christo shows us what he's got...







Then Dora makes her move and Christo is unable to stay on the branch.



If you look below the branch, you can see that Dora has grabbed an old pigeon (that grey blob) that must have been stashed there.



I'm not sure if Christo was also trying to get the pigeon, or if this is just how they communicate.  At first, I thought he might have brought her the pigeon, but it wasn't in his talons when he landed on the branch.





In the end, Christo flew to a tree a few feet away and the two hawks stared at each other for about ten minutes until Dora flew off to the SE corner of the park with the pigeon.  Christo then spent the rest of the afternoon hunting behind the bathrooms.



See more photos on my Flickr page.

Previous hawk posts.

Juvenile hawk in Tompkins Square

Here are some photos of a juvenile hawk in Tompkins Square from this last Sunday.  I'm not sure if it's the same bird, but I've been seeing a juvenile pretty much every time I go to the park recently.  Christo and Dora tolerate it being there, so I wonder if it's one of their offspring.

You can tell this is a juvenile by its yellow eyes and brown stripey tail.  Adults have brown eyes and red tails.









Playing hide-and-seek with a squirrel...





Today (pictures to come), Christo ate dinner in a tree behind the park offices while the juvenile sat nearby in the bird bath and cried.  I thought maybe Christo would bring some food over to it, but nope, he flew off and left the youngster to catch its own dinner.  Wah!

See more hawk photos on my Flickr page.

Previous hawk posts.

Get up, stand up

Here are some images from the Millions March for Justice this last Saturday.

The crowd first gathered for a rally in Washington Square Park.



Then walked up 5th Avenue, made a loop, and ended up down at Police Plaza several hours later. I was heartened to see so many people marching peacefully.













Supporters along the route...



In the windows of the New School.







As the crowd marched up 5th Ave near 12th Street, two red-tailed hawks appeared overhead. I'm guessing these are Rosy and Bobby, the resident hawks of Washington Square Park.



You can see more Millions March NYC photos here.

More hawk activity

This week saw the most hawk activity in Tompkins Square than I've seen in quite a while.  All together, there were five hawks: Christo, Dora, a juvenile, and two others I couldn't identify, but a fellow hawk-watcher said at least one was another juvenile.

Are these young hawks Christo and Dora's offspring or are they just passing through?  I don't know, but the pair seemed to tolerate one of the juveniles, allowing it to hunt and eat in the park.  Here is our mystery bird with a big rat:





I wondered if this could be the same juvenile hawk that's been hanging around the last few weeks, or if it could be Hawklet #3, who was the last to fledge from the nest and who stayed in the park long after its older two siblings left.  Unfortunately, it's impossible to positively identify any of these individuals.

I'm guessing the bird must be related, though, as all three sat together in the same tree for a while.  Here is the juvenile (on the right) approaching Dora (on the left) while Christo perched further off to the left, out of frame.



Here, Dora creeps up behind the younger bird and eventually chased it out of the tree.



Meanwhile, Christo dives after some prey along Avenue A and 7th Street.



Looks like a big mouse or a small rat.







That's one rodent down, eleventy nine million to go...



See more hawk photos on my Flickr page.

Previous hawk posts. 

Hawk highlights

I don't have any new hawk news to report, so here are just a few photos from this last week in and around Tompkins Square.

Christo goes after a rat along Avenue A...



...and here he is flying it towards me.  He flew it right over my head, but I can't focus on him when he gets that close, which is surprisingly often.



He only ate a bit of the rat before flying off to investigate something that caught his attention on the other side of the park.



Even the starlings can't resist his awesomeness.



He lights up the sky.



Meanwhile, Dora dines on a rat atop St Brigid's.



Sitting pretty...



See more hawk photos on my Flickr page.

Previous hawk posts.