While there were reports of Eastern Screech-Owls sightings over the last month and the sighting of a Saw-whet last weekend, today was the first day I saw or heard owls first-hand.

I saw my first owl of the fall, a Northern Saw-whet Owl.  Plus while leaving the park at dusk, I heard the trill call of an Eastern Screech-Owl.

I went up to the Pool this evening and was unable to find a single owl.  The tree leaves are just too dense to have any hope of finding them.

This season was very satisfying.  The parents and the fledgling were a wonderful group to observe and I learned a great deal about Eastern Screech-Owl behavior.

Until next year, back to hawks for the rest of spring…

Tonight, Jean and I were joined by another “Owl Tour”.  By accident, we and some Robins led the group to the two adult owls in a Red Oak, where the owls had been last night.

They both flew out to the same northern tree as last night, and sang to each other.  The songs were in two keys, one for each of them.

They made their way towards the “sex tree” but were chased by Robins much later into the night than usual.  At some point the Robins gave up.

(There were Robin alarms from other trees south of the adults.  It would be nice to find one of the rehabilitated young ones some night.)

On news of the release of the three young owls back into the park, everyone from the core group of owl watchers came to watch the fly out.

It turned out to be an auditory rather than visual evening. The adult owls were not in the Willow this evening.  We could hear groups of American Robins, crying in alarm and flying in and out of trees along the west drive.

When the branches were bare, it was easy to search for the owls in the twilight.  Now that the trees have leafed out, the trees seem so much darker and dense.  So tonight, I didn’t see a single owl perching.

Instead, we hear Robins and Owls.  One owl made a soft song for about ten minutes.  From this tree, we saw two owls fly out and fly into a tree further north.  But the leaves were too dense for me to see anything once they landed again.

Eastern Screech-Owl watching may soon be coming to an end for this season.

I’ve been unable to watch the owls for a week.  Tonight, Jean, Chris and I only saw two owls.  It’s the right number of weeks for “natal dispersal” to have occurred, so it’s possible that the youngster is now off on its own.

I learned later this evening that the NYC Park Rangers released the three rescued fledglings back into the park near where the nest cavity had been, within an hour of my taking these pictures.  Over the next few days, we should learn if the parents accept their young back, ignore them or are hostile to them.  It should be an interesting week.

I got there just in time for the fly out.  The owls have found even more protected places on the tree, so it’s getting harder to find them before the fly out. 

At fly out there were a few soft calls, the parents did some head rubbing and the fledgling took lots of small flights.

The period after the initial fly out was disturbed by an aggressive flash photographer.  What should have been an opportunity for our group to study hunting behavior along the Pool was interrupted by multiple flashes.