The male was out standing guard when I arrived on Wednesday evening.

I arrived around 5:30 after fly out to find one owl quietly sitting on a branch outside the roost tree.  The owl stayed in the same place for at least thirty minutes.  Was it the female waiting for a snack or the male waiting for the female.  I couldn’t tell on a cold, misty night without binoculars.

One of the three Eastern Screech-Owls pairs is in a very public place, and "Owl Mania" broke out over the weekend in Central Park, with far too many visitors descending on the pair.

Although my reporting about them did not disclose their location, I feel that posting any more owl photographs will add to the "Owl Mania". So, I’m going to do what I’ve done the last few years and stop reporting about owls until the late spring.

There was a large crowd tonight.  There was an “Owl Tour” and lots of birders.  They female was very slow to come out and took her time.  She flew out about a half hour later than the male.  They had sex twice and disappeared to the east soon afterwards.

Saturday, 01-12-08

I then came back for the fly out to see him relaxed.

Following up on reports of a newly discovered pair of Eastern Screech-Owls, I rushed out of my office and made it up to them just at fly out.  I couldn’t get my camera focused fast enough to get them in their cavities.  They are using two holes in adjacent tree limbs.

Before they flew out, once gave a soft call, and they flew out one after another and quickly copulated. They then stayed in nearby trees preening, copulated a second time and then went off to hunt.

These would be my sixth and seventh Central Park Screech-Owls of the season.

I didn’t see them actually hunt, but heard one of them land in some leaves and reappear.  Then it was a quick trip back to one of their cavities.

An update for New York City’s birdwatchers… 
One of the park’s pairs of owls may have laid eggs this last weekend.  This educated guess is based on the pair’s recent changes in behavior. If we’re correct, this is consistent with past years.  Starting with the fledge date of late February in 2007 or the early March fledge of 2006 and subtracting 28 days from nestling period, and then go back another 26 days for incubation period gets you to early January.  (This is about six weeks too early, but is characteristic of the Central Park Owls.)

While this is just a guess, we all might want to switch gears and assume that there are nesting owls in the park.  This would mean limiting the sizes of groups, not playing recording of calls, limiting the time we spend around the cavities, being discrete about their locations, etc.  The American Birding Association has a great set of guidelines online, which are worth reviewing.