On Sunday, the Central Park Barred Owl was out in the open in a tree near where the usual Hemlock Tree roost is. Given the skirmishes between the owl, a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk and a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk during the last few weeks, I wonder if the owl had been forced to move earlier in the day.

The owl made one small hop from where it was roosting, and coughed up a pellet before flying out. Owls have limited peripheral vision, so much of what it follows is based on sound. Tonight it fascinating to watch it track its environment based on sound, then sight.

On Saturday, the Central Park Barred Owl chased away a Cooper’s Hawk at fly out, but then settled down and slowly explored the areas near the roost site and perched for the longest time at the shoreline of a small pond.

The Barred Owl was back in its regular roost perch on Monday. It usually just takes a few steps west before fly out, but tonight it took a few east, then a few west. It had its eye on something, and it may have been a Eastern Cottontail Rabbit.

The rabbit was first in Shakespeare Garden, then seen in the Tupelo Meadow and now is much further east. It is good to see it has survived since March.

Luckily the owl. while fascinated with the rabbit, just watched it and then flew away. It made its way to the same snag where it perched on Saturday. It again picked at the remains of a bird. I wonder if it is caching food in the snag.

The owl went south and let us watch it on two different perches before making a long flight out of view.

Possibly because of the encounter with the juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, the Barred Owl was tucked into the Hemlock more on January 2nd. It flew out, went down to the garden, and then back to a snag, where it appears to be caching food. It then went over a hill and into the night. A short evening for post-fly out owl watching.

The action of the evening happened before I even had my camera out. Around 4:30 pm a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk flew directly at the roosting Barred Owl. The owl jumped to a lower branch in time to escape getting hit, but the Red-tailed Hawk ended up in the exact spot the owl had been roosting. This may be far game. The Barred Owl had gone after a roosting Red-tailed Hawk and a Cooper’s Hawk a week earlier.

The fly out seemed early, with the owl making a few stops near the roost site before going west. making at least three stops to go after squirrel cavities or squirrels out on branches. I’ve yet to see the owl catch a squirrel. But this post fly out period is perfect to go after them. The squirrels haven’t gone to sleep yet, so owl has a chance to go after them.

The group watching this evening was incredibly respectful of the owl. They were quiet, minimized movements, and calmly followed the owl. The careful actions of the group allowed us to watch this magnificent bird about ten minutes longer than normal.

After not being seen on the 29th, a Central Park Barred Owl returned to its usual roost on Wednesday. They bird vocalized about 15 minutes before fly out, did its normal movement on its perch of about a foot west 10 minutes before fly out, and did lots of stretching before flying off to Charles’ Garden. I went to the ground twice, but didn’t seem to catch anything before flying off for the night. The moon which had been very bright two days ago, had not yet risen, so it was too dark to go look for it.