Barred Owls
Three Barred Owls have been spotted this week in New York City. I got to see two of them tonight and hear them. They’re no making the standard “Who cooks for you?” calls, but are caterwauling. The sound is very, very loud.
Category: Owls
Long-eared Owl
The first rule of owl watching, is don’t talk about owl watching! So, I won’t say much. It’s just really early for a Long-eared Owl in the greater New York City area.
Owlets, A Week Later
The Manhattan Owlets, a week later…
(These photographs were taken on April 14th. I wanted to wait until the owlets had fledged before posting these photographs. Owls can attract huge crowds, this family deserved some peace and quiet.)
Great Horned Owl Owlets
Manhattan has a nesting pair of Great Horned Owls with two owlets this year in Inwood Hill Park. This is wonderful news. The nest is close by a Red-tailed Hawk nest and the two species are managing to live closely together.
(These photographs were taken on April 6th. I wanted to wait until the owlets had fledged before posting these photographs. Owls can attract huge crowds, this family deserved some peace and quiet.)
Inwood Hill Park
I took advantage of the warm weather to visit Inwood Hill Park at the northern tip of Manhattan. Both Red-tailed Hawks visited the nest, but they don’t appear to have started nesting just yet. They copulated while I was there.
A Great Horned Owl was roosting near the Red-tailed Hawk nest. It will be interesting to see how these birds manage to coexist.
Short-Eared Owls at Shawangunk Grasslands NWR
A two hour drive from New York City is the Shawangunk Grasslands NWR, an old airstrip that is now a National Wildlife Refuge. This time of year it is home to a number of Short-Eared Owls that appear about an hour before sunset.
Tonight, I saw six. It was a life bird for me!
(The refuge is currently closed to pedestrians, as they are reseeding. The pictures are a little blurry due to the distance they were taken from.)
