Owls

Snowy Owl Along The Hudson

A highly cropped photograph taken on Friday of a Snowy Owl along the Hudson River Greenway, was posted on Twitter on Saturday. I wasn’t paying attention, but a friend emailed about it late in the afternoon. I wasn’t sure I was going to go look for it, but I didn’t have wine with dinner just in case. I got a text around 8:45 letting me know the owl was found, and I jumped into a cab.

The owl ate two Brown Rats over the course of about three hours, while perched on a mound of mulch inside a fenced in compound. It ate the first Brown Rat, left with the second, but then returned with the second rat within about twenty minutes. It didn’t finish eating the second Brown Rat until after midnight.

Just like the Snowy Owl in Central Park, this owl has found a safe, protected area to eat.

When the owl was hunting, and after it flew out after the second Brown Rat, gulls left their roost on the Javits Convention Center’s green roof. About fifty gulls scattered.

On Sunday, I went at dusk and waited until 10:00 pm. The owl wasn’t seen but around 200 gulls flew up from the Javits Convention Center roof around 9:00 pm, so the owl might still be in the area.

Visits on Monday and Tuesday showed no signs of the owl, and the Javits gulls roosted peacefully each night.

Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Rodent Snack For The Ritz-Carlton Female

I watched the Ritz-Carlton nest on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, not much happened between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm.

So, on Friday I visited around 4 pm. When I arrived, the male was circling ear the nest with a small rodent, which could either have been a mouse or a small rat. Somewhat comically, two Rock Pigeons were chasing him for a few minutes. He dropped the rat off, but didn’t stay on the nest. He just left.

The female then left the nest with the rodent, went three buildings to the west, and ate it. She returned to the nest within ten minutes.

(This is typical behavior. To keep the nest clean, the female will almost always eat off the nest. And I’m not surprised the male didn’t stay and incubate the eggs. I’ve seen it take a few days for an inexperienced male to understand his “duties”.)

After she returned to the nest, we found the male in a high tree in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary. The Bluejays found him and after ignoring their abuse he flew west.

Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Ritz-Carlton Nest

Tonight, I arrived to see the female brooding on the nest. She clearly was incubating at least one egg. Unlike the previous days, she was always on top of the eggs, making contact with her brood patch, rather than sitting upright. I didn’t see the male and the female stayed on the nest the entire time I visited from about 5:30 until 7:00. Nest watching can be a bit boring at times!

TCC/MCNY Red-tailed Hawks

Terence Cardinal Cooke

The nest is at 105th and Fifth Avenue today. The female was glued to the nest, although she took a brief break off the nest for a few minutes without the male relieving her. He made a visit for about a minute. Other than that it was just watching the female incubate. There is construction near the nest, so let’s hope they do well despite it.

Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

An Egg? On Central Park South?

Red-tailed Hawks lay their eggs one at a time, 36-48 hours apart. When the first egg is laid, you see lots of behavioral changes. The female stops standing upright on the nest, and begins to lay flat. She also does a “shimmy”, where she wiggles to get the best contact between her brood patch on her chest and the eggs, when she lays down. The pair also does exchanges, where the male takes over egg warming duties and gives the female a break.

Today, I saw all of these behaviors. So there is a good chance an egg was laid. If so, this would mean we might have hatchlings on the last week of April or the first week of May. Fingers crossed!

Just a tail is visible.
The view from “The Dairy”.
Again, just a tail is visible.
The male arrives. He’s on the left.
The female jumps up on the shield.
She leaves briefly.
He leaves, but then both return, and he brings prey.
She takes it and after about a minute will leave.
She goes two buildings west on Central Park South, picks at the prey but goes elsewhere to eat it.
He’s on the nest for about 45 minutes, and leaves before she returns.
After about five minutes without anyone on the nest, the female returns to a nearby perch.
The female returns to the nest.
The male makes makes a trip to the top of 40 Central Park West.
The female all settled down.