Well, just as I was giving up on our little guys, Caroline finds one of them in a low bush by The Pool. So, the season isn't over and we've found one of the them into August.
This report ended up being the last sighting of the North Woods Owls in 2008. A great year, which may never be repeated. How lucky I feel to have witnessed a full breading cycle of an owl species.
Before I went to visit Pale Male, I spent three hours in the North Woods looking for warblers. It was a good day for early August. I had four wood warblers, Worm-eating Warbler, Black and White Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, and American Redstart. I didn’t take any photographs, I just birded. It was a relaxing change.
After birding up at the north end of the park, I went down to the Met, and looked for Pale Male. Luckily, two photographers had already found him, Nabil and Lincoln. They’re much easier to spot! He was busy looking at the garden near Cleopatra’s Needle, then gave up and flew towards the great lawn. After stopping for just a few minutes, he went to the ground and caught a very small rodent.
He quickly eat the snack sized creature, “brushed his beak” on a tree limb, and was then off to the north. However, he quickly returned to his favorite fall perch and went to sleep for the night. Although the last image may look like daylight, it was already about 20 minutes past sunset.
Pale Male and Lola were where I expected them to be today late this afternoon after a strong thunderstorm.
Pale Male was in a tree on the Great Lawn enjoying that it was closed and free of people. (The Parks Department closes the lawn whenever it is too wet.) Reports are that he spent the whole afternoon in the same tree, although he did shift perches moving from branch to branch.
Lola likes to be high up, so I expected her to be on a building on either Central Park West or Fifth Avenue. I found her on a building at 78th and Fifth Avenue being harassed by an American Kestrel.
After all of the ups and downs of this Spring’s breeding season, it was nice to find some consistency. Soon it will be Fall and Pale Male will hunt around nearby apple trees which attract rodents with their fallen fruit.
I’ve had three days of bad luck finding our North Woods owls. No sight or sound of them on Saturday, Sunday and Monday evenings. Owl season may finally be over.
I spent the early evening on the east slope of the Great Hill (NW Central Park), following up reports of a sighting of owls there four days ago. It was slow going with no owls in sight and fairly quiet. My best bird was a very vocal Carolina Wren.
When dusk arrived, a young Red-tailed hawk landed in a Great Hill tree, and then stayed for a few minutes. It took off and made the begging sound young Red-tails make. I followed it to the West Drive, where I saw one hawk leaving (a parent?), and a hawk perched (the fledgling?), who then flew off back towards the Great Hill.
I was able to watch it circle the hill, and then head north. I can’t be 100% certain but there’s an excellent chance the young hawk was the healthy Cathedral fledgling. (The other Cathedral fledgling had lead poisoning and has a lame foot.)
Tonight, we had the adult female in almost the same place we had seen her on Saturday. She called a number of times before flying out, and we might have heard a reply but could not be sure.
When she flew out, she actually came down right over my head and I had to duck. It was great to see her fly right at me. I don’t think she was trying to hurt me.
She seemed intent on getting a worm from near where I was. The earthworm had been brought to the surface by the heavy rains earlier in the day. She got it and ate it in on a low tree branch.
She continued to do some calling and moved towards the location of the nest cavity. Then we lost her and went to investigate a report of two owls that had been seen earlier in the week, on a slope of the Great Hill. We didn’t find them, but couldn’t help but wonder if they were the fledglings or possibly owls from earlier years.
