Other Animals Archives - Page 9 of 9

September 17, 2006December 25, 2020Other Animals

Loch Ness Turtle

I had heard stories of very large turtles in Central Park, but since I’d never seen one thought they were a myth. These stories included one about a 75 pound turtle being moved from Turtle Pond to the Lake in 1997, and various tales of ducklings being eaten by large turtles. These stories always seemed as plausible as the Loch Ness monster being real!

But they must be true, or at least partially. On Sunday, I saw the largest fresh water turtle I’ve ever seen. It was huge! It was between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 feet and slowly moved about a cove in the Lake called the Oven.

I hope it gets looked after during the Lake’s renovation. Maybe it can go back to Turtle Pond, although I suspect we’d have fewer goslings and ducklings reaching adulthood.

August 6, 2006December 25, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Other Animals, Other Birds

Couldn’t Find What I Was Looking For. . .

I went birding on Sunday in hopes of finding the St. John the Divine hawks or the 1st Year Red-tailed hawk, Ben Cacace and Lincoln Karim have been seeing in Central Park. I didn’t find either of them.

I did see some old favorites however, the Red Squirrel (the only one in Central Park), Lola, the female Red-tailed Hawk from the 5th Avenue nest, who was on the NE tower of the Beresford keeping an eye on a Kestrel pair on the SE tower, and the two young Green Herons.

April 20, 2006December 25, 2020Other Animals

Young Raccoon Near The Hawk Bench

A young raccoon is living near the hawk bench and appears every evening around dusk. As night falls, many of the hawk watchers are now making a stop to look at him/her as they leave the park for the evening.

January 16, 2006December 28, 2020Other Animals, Other Birds

Monday Holiday – Birds and Racoons

I spent the afternoon in the park, starting at 105th and Fifth, first exploring the Conservatory Garden (which I discovered has two stray cats living in the snow), the Meer and the Loch. I then went down to 79th and explored the Ramble.

I had planned my day to look for owls of any kind. So, it was a hunt for tree cavities (Eastern Screech Owls) (where did the 5 Eastern Screech Owls we saw in the Spring go?), in bushes (Northern Saw-whet Owls), and Evergreens (Long-eared Owls). I didn’t have any luck. My only owl of the day was the Great Horned Owl, who had returned to the tree it had used earlier in the week.

As often happens with birding, I saw interesting things I wasn’t looking for…