Central Park Snowy Owl 2021, Owls

Goose, Owl, Rat

On Thursday, February 11th, the Snowy Owl arrived at the North Meadow from the northeast and left the same way. So, three independent owl watchers ended up at the Grassy Knoll in hopes of seeing where the owl flew in from.

The owl had other ideas.

We saw a bird fly from the south around 5:50 pm. It was a Canada Goose that had been on the North Meadow by itself for much of the afternoon. I thought it was the owl at first, and just as I realized my mistake, the Snowy Owl appeared about twenty feet over the goose. It had been chasing the goose. The goose went out of view and the owl tried to land at the top of a tree. The branches were too small so the owl turned around and landed on the North Meadow.

Within a minute, a cross country skier flushed the owl and it went up to a backstop. After a few minutes it flew northwest and out of view. We looked for it but had not luck finding it. I made a loop around the western section of the North Meadow, and when I returned to the eastern section, the Snowy Owl was on the ground eating a Brown Rat. I returned around 6:45, so it had quickly caught the rat and returned to the field.

It was good to see that the owl is finding food quickly. Hopefully, it will be well feed by the time it returns north.

Central Park Coyotes

Coyote In Central Park

The 2010 Central Park Coyote on The Pond

You may have seen some news about the Coyote that’s been seen in Central Park lately. We’ve had sightings consistently over the last few years in the park. Late winter is a common time for sightings. Many young Coyotes are pushed out of their family units in the late winter, and a few have been wandering into Manhattan each year.

I followed a Coyote in 2010 and had a wonderful experience. At the time, we’d had some negative outcomes with previous Coyotes in the Manhattan, and I wrote about the issues. The questions at the time was do you try and capture the Coyote or just let it stay. Given the experiences of other cities, the answer seems to be just let it be.

If you use the category search on the right, and select Central Park Coyote 2010, you’ll see what I wrote back then.

A new resource that might be helpful if you’re interested in Urban Coyotes is the Gotham Coyote Project website.

Central Park Snowy Owl 2021, Owls

Snow and Water

The Snowy Owl has been appearing on one of Central Park’s North Meadow ballfields at dusk each day since it arrived. Ballfield 3, 4 and Ballfield 10 seem to be favorites stops.

On Sunday, February 7th, the owl appeared from the west and landed on Ballfield 10, then flew west and we relocated it on top of the Ballfield 4 backstop (where the owl was first seen the day it was discovered). The owl then few down to the field, but quickly took off possibly to the north. We searched but couldn’t find it.

We then joined the group who was waiting for the owl to appear at the North Gatehouse of Reservoir. It appeared and left after a few minutes. The crowd was well behaved on SuperB Owl Sunday, although there were some flashes and autofocus assist lights.

It will be interesting to see what more we learn about this owl. It certainly has been seen in the area north of the Reservoir and south of the North Meadow, but where it is hunting and where it is hiding during the day remains a mystery.

Other Birds

American Tree Sparrow Using eBird

I’ve run across lots of new birders lately that don’t know how to use eBird to see the observations of other birders in the area. It’s a fantastic tool, and much more comprehensive than the feeds available on Twitter. Even if you aren’t ready to record your birds on eBird yet, there are some great resources on the site.

Before I go out birding for the day, I look at the:
New York County Rare Bird Alert

On any given day, you’ll see the rare birds being seen, can click through to details and sometime photographs, and also see who is seeing the birds. (If you’re a registered eBird users, you can have this list sent to you hourly or daily via email.)

The details can be very helpful. They usually have more specific location information but also other great details. For example, a sighting of a Red-shouldered Hawk might be a fly over or a bird that has been around for a few days. A fly over might not be worth looking out for, but a bird that has been seen for a few days is worthy of keeping an eye out for.

Looking at who is reporting the bird is also very helpful. Sometimes a birder will make an entry error when doing a report. This happened this week with 50 Cackling Goose being reported. I saw the name, which I hadn’t seen before and knew it was someone learning eBird and mistakenly reporting Cackling Goose rather than Canadian Goose. We all make mistakes while learning to report birds! But if one of the top birders in the county reported 50 Cackling Goose, I would be making a trip to look for them.

I don’t normally run around after these birds, but I do modify my itinerary based on the alerts. So, with the American Tree Sparrow, when I saw we had lots of sightings in the last week, with reports from the Ramble, the Compost Heap, Green’s Bench in Central Park and Randals Island, I kept an eye out for them.

Knowing the American Tree Sparrow had been seen regularly at the feeders in the Ramble, I spent extra time there and got to see one fly in after a Red-tailed Hawk left the area. Sometimes the rare bird alert has me going to the Reservoir, The Pool or the North Woods instead of my usual walk in the Ramble based on what’s being reported.

In addition to using the Rare Bird Alert, there are two other eBird tools that come in handy.

eBirds Species Maps (requires you to have an eBird account):
American Tree Sparrow

eBirds Bar Charts:
New York County (Manhattan)

The maps allow you to see where a specific species is being seen, and the bar charts tell you when something will be seen. These both come in handy.

For the American Tree Sparrow, the bar chart says February is a good time to look for them.

This is helpful since a bird being reported out of season, might show up as a rare bird but might be much easy to find in later months. A warbler that’s for some reason decided to stay the winter in a pocket part in Manhattan might not be worth going after, for example.

In the fall, there was a couple at the Evodia feeders desperate to see a Yellow-belled Sapsucker, as they had seen all of the other common woodpeckers in the area. I said, I think you’re looking too soon. So, I got out my phone and looked at the frequency bar chart. I was right. The birds historically arrived a few weeks later. I said, worry about this bird in two week. They easily got the bird two weeks later.

For those of you outside of Manhattan, just go to the eBirds Explore page. You will see how to set up alerts for your area there.

For more information on how to start using eBird, click here.