Urban Hawks

January 31, 2019December 16, 2020Owls

Northern Saw-whet Owl In A Snow Squall

I’ve avoided photographing a specific Northern Saw-when Owl for over a month because I’ve felt I had to be too close to the owl to photograph it without disturbing it. On Wednesday, during a brief but at times intense snow squall, the bird was on a new branch and could be photographed from a safe distance. The owl was wide awake after being bounced around rather intensely by high winds. The tree was pushed eight feet by the winds at one point.

January 29, 2019December 25, 2020Other Birds

Pocket Parks

New York City has lots of smaller parks. The smallest are called Pocket Parks and are small areas next to large buildings which got a zoning variance in exchange for the park. At any time in the year, these parks can contain an unusual bird or two. They often have lingering birds staying over the winter. They’re always worth checking, if you are by one. Today, I got to see a pair of Brown Thrashers in a pocket park just east of Sixth Avenue between 46th and 47th.

January 27, 2019December 18, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Pale Male

I caught up with Pale Male while exiting the park on Saturday. He was on a Metropolitan Museum of Art security camera on the north side of the building. He only stayed perched long enough to get a few seconds of video.

January 24, 2019December 27, 2020Other Birds

Odds and Ends

My visit to Central Park on Wednesday yielded some interesting birds.

I photographed the leucistic (a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes) Common Grackle that has been well documented and visits the bird feeders in the Ramble daily.
Watched the Rusty Blackbird in The Loch in the northern end of the park.
Photographed a neck banded Canada Goose at The Pond, numbered Y3T4, with white letters on orange. Looking at my photographs, I discovered it was with another banded goose, X3A9. I’ve reported the band numbers, so I should hear back in a few weeks as to where these birds were banded, and possibly why.

Update: A Facebook reader commented that I might have best used the term Piebald rather than Leucistic for the Common Grackle. Here’s an interesting link about when to use each, from The Spruce: Bird Leucism.

Update 2: Got the banding information back.
Band Number: 1078-14416 Y3T4
Banded: 07/02/2013
Species: CANADA GOOSE
Age of Bird: WAS TOO YOUNG TO FLY WHEN BANDED IN 2013
Sex: MALE
Location: VARENNES, QUÉBEC, CANADA
Bander: JEAN RODRIGUE QC-SCF-SAUVAGINE 801-1550 D’ESTIMAUVILLE QUEBEC QC G1J 0C3

Update 3: I got an email from Michael Castellano that he saw the neck banded geese in Prospect Park on February 3rd.

January 20, 2019December 16, 2020Owls

Great Horned Owl

Tonight, as the temperature quickly dropped below freezing the Great Horned Owl held on in very high winds. What a way to wake up! It coughed up two pellets one after another. Otherwise it was tough night for owl watching, with the owl quickly going out of view at fly out.

January 18, 2019December 16, 2020Owls

Barred Owl

Just when Owl mania seemed to be over, three species of owls were reported in Central Park today, Great Horned, Northern Saw-whet and Barred. Only the Barred Owl was easy to photograph from a distance, so I choose to watch it. It was calm, except when two Red-tailed Hawks and a group of Blue Jays were nearby.