I may have counted the eyasses incorrectly at Riverside. Both Saturday and Sunday, I only saw two eyasses on the nest. I went back to my photographs from Thursday, and it might be possible that I mistook a wing for a head in a few of the photographs. Until I see three heads for sure, I think it would be best if I revised my count to two, with a possible third.
In any case, the warm weather and sunlight encouraged the nestlings to be very active on Sunday.
The two Highbridge youngsters were alert and active Sunday afternoon. They’re at that “toddler” stage where they use their wings to crawl around and flop down a lot.
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.
