The Great Horned Owl was spotted again in the North Woods of Central Park. It moved mid-day, and I caught up with it mid-afternoon. It had a decapitated Brown Rat with it. It held it primarily in its right talon, but when it got windy it would hold it in its mouth.
One of the young eyasses at the Terence Cardinal Cooke nest was very visible during an early afternoon feeding today. Before the feeding the mother took a brief break and left the nest unattended for about ten minutes. This is a sign the youngsters have grown up enough to not need the warm of their mother constantly. It will be a few days before we can see how many young there are. They hatch a few days apart, with the younger ones staying hidden for a bit longer. We hopefully will see one or two more shortly.
At this stage there is a lot of waiting, maybe 90-150 minutes between feedings. But I’m looking forward to late May when the young hawks will be running and flapping along the long ledge the nest is on.
In this year of owls, Central Park had a Great Horned Owl on Friday.
One eyass (hatchling) was visible today at the Terence Cardinal Cooke nest. How nice to have a successful nest on Fifth Avenue this year, even if it is 31 blocks north of Pale Male and Octavia’s nest. I can’t yet figure out how many eyasses there are, but we definitely have one. It is still very hard to see, and should be much easier to see in a week or two. The long ledge the nest is on should make for some fun practice runs in a month.
Central Park’s Barred Owl continues to delight folks. It has stayed longer than any Barred Owl I can remember. As the days are getting longer (or maybe because of the trees leafing out), it is now flying out in much brighter light, stoping in a nearby tree for about 30 minutes. It has been seen having a greater range, and visiting The Lake and the Conservatory Water (aka Model Boat Pond).
I was happy to see the pair perched near each other on the north tower on Thursday.
