Urban Hawks

Central Park had a visiting Long-eared Owl that was only seen for a day in mid-December in a stand of trees in Shakespeare Garden. I drew a large crowd, so I only stayed a few minutes.

A Riverside Barred Owl flew out about twenty minutes early and slowly worked its way north about six blocks before I lost track of it.   The park is slopes downhill, so from the sideway, one has a great view of the treetops below. On Saturday, this made for almost perfect viewing.

Owl watching requires some luck.  Tonight, we had lots of it.  The owl was after squirrels in various trees and eventually was captivated by one in a small tree at eye level for about ten minutes before flying down near the highway and out of sight.

Last Sunday, one of the Riverside Park Owls went after Sweet Gum Balls, behavior I’ve never seen before.  It was lots of fun to watch, however in the middle of the play, an Owl Tour leader started playing recordings and interrupted the owl.  The owl left to investigate, circled around the tour and then flew south out of sight.

These images were taken on December 5th.  This evening, the Barred Owl went after cavities near its roost looking for squirrels and cavity roosting birds.  It must have gone to at least six cavities and squirrel dreys.  It was a nice night with lots of post fly out activity.

These photographs were taken on December 2nd of one of the two Barred Owls that have been in Riverside Park.  On this day, the owl was over a sidewalk right next to the street.  The owl was respectully watched at fly out by folks in the neighborhhod.  On some nights this owl is easy to watch after fly out, but not on this night.  I quickly went off into the darkness.