On Saturday, I had a slow start. I started in the Ramble trying to chase down the White-crowned Sparrow without much luck. I then walked to Turtle Pond and found a cute group of Buffleheads among some Mallards and Northern Shovelers.
I made it to the park on Friday! Finally, a sunny day where I didn’t have to work. I spent a few hours trying to photograph a White-crowned Sparrow without success. I did see it a few times, but just as I tried to take a picture it would be scared off by a passing tourist.
On Saturday, the first owl of the fall season was spotted in Central Park, a Long-eared Owl (LEOW). (I was working, so I didn’t get to photograph LEO.)
I did make it the park around dusk to look for Eastern Screech Owls (ESOW). Unfortunately, I suspect that there may no longer be any surviving ESOs in the park. These owls were reintroduced to the park in 1998 and 2001-2002 and have not been fairing well. Screech Owls fly at low heights and easily run into cars. (The original decline in Eastern Screech Owls occurred about the same time as the carriage paths in the park were turned into roadways.)
I suspect the fall owl season will consist of viewing migrating Long-eared and Northern Saw-whet Owls, and confirming the disappearance of the Eastern Screech Owl from Central Park.
December Update: At least two Eastern Screech Owls are in the North Woods! I’m happy to be wrong!
On Marathon Sunday, I came into a park full of runners. The marathon route goes right through Pale Male and Lola’s territory.
I walked around the Great Lawn and saw a hawk skim just above ground level from the center of the lawn to the eastern edge. The hawk grabbed a small bird and then jumped into a low branch of a small tree between two baseball diamonds. The bird was the immature hawk that Lola has been tolerating and to some observers, has even been playing with.
There’s no doubt fall has arrived in New York. It was in the low 40’s, the leaves have turned to wonderful fall colors. Another sign of fall has arrived is the return of Buffleheads to the Reservoir.
After all of the problems with the West Side Screech-Owls in the Spring of 2006, I wasn’t optimistic that there were any surviving Screech-Owls in the park. Around Thanksgiving, after the leaves had fallen from the trees, I searched all of the known Screech-Owl cavities near the Rambles and in the North Woods.
I had no luck finding any owls, and even wrote in my blog, that I though 2006 might be the last year Screech-Owls were seen in Central Park.
In December, I received a note from Christine (Chris), who walks her wonderful dog Fig, in the Northwest of the park every evening that she had seen Screech-Owls. I spent a few evenings looking for them without any luck.
In early March, I received emails detailing two different rescues of Screech-Owl babies up north. Again, I went up to look and found nothing.
In late March, Chris wrote us again saying she had found the owls. What was wonderful, was that she had not only found the parents, but also a fledgling. Luckily, the next day, I got to see and begun studying the Screech-Owls.
What follows is my account of the adventures and discoveries watching these three Eastern-Screech Owls in the Spring of 2007.
These photographs were all taken with natural light. Advances in
digital photography make it possible to take pictures in very low
light. The photographs were taken with a 500mm lens at
distances of 25-200 feet.
The long exposures also brighten up the dark sky, so that it appears to
be daylight. However, most of these pictures were taken after dusk.
As the nights darkened, natural light sometimes was replaced by
orange street lamps and green and red traffic signals. You’ll notice some color shifts in the
photographs or blurry images. To have avoided this completely, I would have needed to
use flash. I decided that I would rather have the color shifts than
risk disturbing the owls with repeated flashes.
I don’t think limited use of flash has any effect on the owls, but since this was part of a long term study, I wanted to be extra careful. It’s also important to say how much flash photography disturbs the ambiance and those watching with you. When I go birding, if I see a someone or a group watching a bird, I slowly join them before taking pictures. Nature photographers in Central Park should take the same approach, and ask their fellow birders if they mind them taking flash pictures. These birds don’t deserve an aggressive "paparazzi" style photo shoot.
For background on the Eastern Screech-Owl, there is basic information on The Owl Pages or the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology’s Animal Diversity Web.