Urban Hawks

Both owls were vocal this evening, with the male singing his trill and the female her whinny.  They copulated twice, so spring can’t be that far away.

The Hovarth family was watching the owls this evening.  They were thrilled to see one of their owls doing so well back in the wild.  When they release most of their birds, they end up flying off never to be seen again, so this was a special experience for them.

I learned that our red male had hit a car, and ended up caught on the car’s windshield wiper before being brought to the Hovarths.

The first four photographs are of the male, and the rest are of the female.

We searched for their roosting locations this evening without success, but did gain some clues about their locations.  The male arrived from the level of the bypass road coming in from near the police post.  The female seemed to be on the path about 50 feet from the rustic bridge.

The two of them copulated and the male took off.  The female then called for a long period of time on the path that goes east from under Glen Span Arch.  In previous years, the her old mate would have brought her a treat after copulation.  I wonder if her new, younger mate doesn’t know what’s expected of him?

Below are pictures of the female, who we’ve nicknamed Trident because of the three think lines that radiate backwards from her beak on her forehead.

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.