The owls were in the two tree by the path tonight. They ended up going to the trees near the streetlights were they first roosted when they fledged. This evening the fledglings seemed to be hunting moths, rather than being feed by their parents. It was dark, so this is only a guess however.
The owls continue to surprise us. I was expecting a repeat of last night, so I convinced my friends to go to the other side of the Loch with me to look for them taking a bath. The owls came briefly to the area but a family of raccoons made it impossible for them to enjoy the stream.
So, they went back to an area west of their nesting tree. Which meant running back around to where we started. I’m glad my friends were understanding, since I took them on a wild “owl” chase.
Across the street from Zabar’s on the Upper West Side is an American Kestrel scrape.
I was thrilled to find it because I was able to first identify the bird from two blocks away by looking at its silhouette and wing beat. The Kestrel, a small falcon, then led me to its scrape (since Kestrel’s don’t build a “nest” but use a hollow, they’re called scrapes).
Most urban hawks and falcons that nest in the city do so near a park. American Kestrel’s, however are our true urban birds not needing a park. In New York City, they are everywhere often nesting, like this pair, just under a roof line behind a rusted out decorative eave molding. They are all up and down Broadway on the west side.
Although these photographs may imply it is easy to see the young ones, it isn’t. They’re rarely active and except for feedings which occur about every two hours are hard to see. Today only two eyasses were visible at any one time. I went through my photographs from Thursday and still think there are three. As they get bigger, this will become easier to figure out.
The fledglings are now accomplished fliers and quickly went all around the Loch this evening. I lost them for about five minutes, but was able to find them on the east side of the stream. One of the parents looked like they had been taking a bath. The young ones were on a branch just a few feet off the ground, and were so close, I had to move back to focus.
As I was about to leave, I heard the trill call again, and one of the parents had what might have been a mouse. Earlier, there were Whinny calls and the Hoot-Hoot calls to warn of two raccoons.
I spent the weekend visiting all the nests I could to see my first hawk eyas of the season. I came up empty. So, I was thrilled to see three little fluff balls tonight at the Riverside nest. I had heard reports of two chicks, but there were three being fed. Hooray!
