In the northeast corner of Bryant Park, a Barred Owl roosted today. It certainly isn’t the safest place for an owl with lots of cars and people, but it certainly has lots of prey. But the park also has a lot of bait boxes. These can hold rodenticides or snare traps. If they have rodenticides, there might be a problem with the prey.
On a snowy day, made my first stop Riverside Drive and 86th Street to see the Peregrine Falcons who have been perching on the Normandy. They were both there, but also a wonderful American Kestrel who was camped out in from of two bushed with about 40 White-throated Sparrows and House Sparrows. The Peregrines came and left, and in the late afternoon both moved to West End Avenue.
I then went to Central Park, making a brief visit to the Reservoir and then to see the Great Horned Owl that has been in the park. It’s important to see and owl on SuperB Owl Sunday.
There has been a Great Horned Owl in Central Park for at least a week now. Tonight, I was able to follow it from its roost tree to the Compost Heap. It perched in a tree that the Snowy Owl often used last year. It then went down to the Conservatory Garden and returned to a tree a bit further northeast. I couldn’t be sure, but I think it had prey.
In the middle of the worst periods of COVID-19 pandemic, a Snowy Owl made an appearance in Central Park and stayed for over a month. Over that period of time, I got to watch the owl hunt, eat, play, and bathe. Like I have with Red-tailed Hawks, I observed as much as I could on those cold winter nights and came away with a new understanding of the species. I’ve edited down my daily videos to a 40 minute collection of the “best” examples of her behaviors. They show what we learned better than any description I could write.
It’s been a year since the Snowy Owl appeared in Central Park and stayed for about a month. What an incredible adventure we had watching her. To learn more about her, see my posts from last year.
I spent most of December doing my birding in Central Park without a camera. It was nice to just walk around and observe for a change. But I did do some owl watching over the holidays with a camera. Here are some of a Great Horned Owl pair in NYC.
