Friday night started with the two owls being very vocal.  I went to find a better camera angle, and missed the two copulating.

The male then went off into the Loch and the female stayed behind for over an hour.  She spent much of the time calling.  We wondered if she was expecting him to bring dinner like we had seen her old mate do last season.

The night started out seemingly hopeless with no sign of an owl in the Loch or out by the pool.  I had given up but decided to sit on Glen Span Arch in hopes of hearing an owl for a few minutes.

Luckily, Caroline arrived with her dogs, and suggested we take a walk into the Loch.  We waited where I had seen them before and then made a loop along the west path and then returned on the east path.  When we were almost back where we had started, we heard the female.  She was very cooperative and let us watch for almost forty minutes.  There was no sign of the red-phased Owl.

A few birders and I had seen a North Woods Eastern Screech-Owl pair
copulating the previous evening.  It had been the first time we had
seen Screech-Owls up north since last summer.  It seems that the Red
phased owl that had been downtown, has replaced one of the gray owls
from last year.

So in the late afternoon, I went up to the North Woods to look for
the owls again, since their current roosting cavities remain a
mystery. 

This evening, while waiting to see or hear the owls, we heard taped
calls from the bypass road at 103rd Street.  An owl group leader was
playing tapes.  I was disappointed to hear the tapes, since the couple
had already begun the breeding season.

Because the red phased Eastern Screech-Owl was large, it was assumed
that it was female.  But you’ll see in the pictures below, based on who
is on top, it looks the female is actually a male.  Colors late at
night can be confusing, but it’s a good bet we got the sex wrong
initially.

Sunday had a Long-eared Owl in “The Oven” (a cove on the Lake in Central Park).

The Long-eared Owl was in a deciduous tree in the open which is unusual for the species.

A Long-eared Owl ended up being found in a very unlikely place in Central Park on Saturday, during a snow storm.  The bird was in a small tree at the edge of the Reservoir.  A kind Central Park birder, who’s name is unfortunately just on the tip of my tongue, walked 10 blocks in the storm to show me the bird! Thank you.

This season has had a number of Long-eared Owls, who only seem to be staying for a day or two.  Let’s hope one or two of them end up staying a little while longer this winter.

The park’s new Red-phased Eastern Screech-Owl has been using the same cavity for a few days.  It’s been hard to track after fly out.  Trying to figure out where it’s going after fly out is almost impossible.