Urban Hawks

December 6, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Long-eared Owl

Congratulations and thanks to Lincoln Karim for finding a Long-eared Owl in Central Park today. It was the first sighting of a Long-eared Owl in the park this year.

December 5, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

More Eastern Screech-Owl Photographs…

Our two owls seem to be sleeping in separate beds each evening. We have one sleeping consistently in one cavity, who is then greeted by a second owl, who appears out of nowhere, just after fly out.

On Tuesday, Marianne Girds saw the two owls copulate, so we definitely have a couple.

December 2, 2007December 23, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Sunday Around The Great Lawn

Lola was on the Beresford when I looked for her early on Sunday afternoon.

She was looking down at something, so I went to look for it. I was hoping for a Long-Eared Owl, but found this…

I then saw Pale Male at the bottom of the Great Lawn. He switched trees a few times.

Here he’s taking off to fly to another tree.

We had a number of “intruders”, including a Cooper’s Hawk, American Kestrel and this Turkey Vulture.

Pale Male on one of the baseball backstops.

Pale Male was found to be on his favorite MET security camera. He soon flew off, towards Turtle Pond.

While watching for owls, the first year hawk came by.

It ended up in a tree for the night in what I call the DMZ. The zone between the Central Park South hawks and Pale Male and Lola.

Enjoy the winter in Central Park, but remember you’re going to be kicked out come spring by the old folks!

December 2, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Screech Owls On A Snowy Sunday

I came into the park during a break in the snow storm to look for the screech owls.

There was no sign of them, so I went off hawk watching. It was a good day for watching Pale Male and Lola, as there were other birds in their territory including a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, an American Kestrel, a Turkey Vulture and a Cooper’s Hawk.

I went back in the late afternoon to look for any sign of the owls and got to see one fly out and then got to watch them for about an hour after the fly out. The combination of the snow and low cloud cover created a glowing background to see the owls in the dark.

The first sign of an owl wasn’t until 4:50 p.m.

There was only one owl in this tree cavity tonight. This shot of the owl reminded me of the owl Jean and I saw on April 30th. It has the same fine streaking on its head.

It took its time flying out. But finally it flew.

I lost it at first by found an owl after five minutes. Soon there were two and I lost track of who was who.

both came together for a brief moment. One owl also lead me to another cavity location, which it went in and out of about three times. Eastern Screech-Owl males are known to provide a selection of cavities, sometimes with food caches for their mates. I might have been witnessing this behavior, but can’t be certain.

This pair’s roosts, as well as the Pool and West Drive owls are all in very public locations. I wonder if being in an area with lots of dog walkers helps protect them from raccoons. Is a more public roost in Central Park safer for a nocturnal bird, then a wooded space in the Ramble or the Loch?

December 1, 2007December 18, 2020Owls

Eastern Screech-Owls Rediscovered

After being away for Thanksgiving, I was finally able to get back into Central Park on Saturday. I was able to relocate the Eastern Screech-Owl I had seen two weeks ago. It was in a nearby tree.

Owls have very expressive faces. Over the course of an hour, I got to see many expressions as people, dogs, blue-jays and a juvenile Red-tail hawk were in the neighborhood.

Later in the day, we discovered that there were two owls.

I can’t tell them apart just yet. It will take a few more visits.

The second flew out a good 13 minutes later at 5:03. I was able to find one of them at around 5:10 in a tree at the top of a hill.

November 23, 2007December 25, 2020General News

Giving Thanks

The City of New York has proposed new regulations for photographers in the city. The city has scrapped the old proposal which would have impacted birding photographers and recommended a sensible set of regulations.

Thank you to all of the readers who sent letters to the city and to Chris Dunn and his staff at the NYCLU. A democracy can be an inefficient form of government, but it’s great when it works.