Today morning in Washington Square Park, a group of online hawk camera watchers and chat users met to extend their cyber life into real life.

It’s a good thing too.  Once this youngster fledges, everyone will need to know each other. It’s a lot more work, but a lot more fun to track a fledgling in person.  The Washington Square hawk watchers are internet savvy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this fledgling’s location is reported via twitter rather than email or phone calls.

Many of the web cam watchers were making their first visit to the nest.  It was fun to watch the excitement of everyone when Bobby perched on One Fifth Avenue, or when both parents circled high above 11th Street to escort an intruder away.

The eastern portion of the park, which has been under construction is now open.  I took advantage of the newly opened space to look for perches on buildings too difficult to see while the eastern section of the park was closed.  My search ended up being very rewarding.  I found a location where one hawk was eating and later some scaffolding where both parents were perched twenty feet apart.