Following our previous post on the fledgling Tompkins Square red-tailed hawk catching a pigeon, we observed the young hawk catching a rat during the same visit.
This is the fledgling, proudly posing just seconds after nabbing a rat as it scurried along a wall.
The hawk took the rat up to a step where it looked like it might stay and eat its meal.
However, the fledgling thought better of it and decided to fly the prey to a safer place to eat.
The hawk took the rat up to a tree branch where it gave us a brief glimpse of its trophy before tucking in to dinner.
After eating, the hawk flew around a bit and appeared to be hunting again. As we stated in the previous post, we observed the hawk catch two pigeons in addition to the rat during a span of only a few minutes (and there was a third dead pigeon present, which we attribute to the hawk).
On this day, it seemed the fledgling was more focused on practicing its hunting skills and wasn't necessarily hungry, but it had plenty of leftovers to carry it into the following day.
Hunting is hard work, so the young hawk took a moment to stretch.
As the sun set, the fledgling relaxed on a fence and watched the early evening rodent activity. One rat down, a couple million to go...
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