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.

Jean and I were the only owl watcher for the evening.  I could only find two in the tree this evening.  Fly out was fast with movement quickly east.  There was some calling and then it was quickly over the drive where we lost them.  Most of the trees are now fully leafed out, and it is becoming much harder to follow the owls as they make their way into the North Woods.

There were none of the regulars this evening, but we Jonathan, Barrie, her husband, and others as owl watchers.

It was a confusing fly out.  Only one owl was visible in the Willow, but it appeared that three flew out.  I think they’ve found spots on the back side of the Willow, which we can’t see from the shore of the Pool.  The owls flew out in time to raise concern from the numerous Robins in the area.

Then as it got darker, the Robins went to sleep and all was quiet. The owls flew from tree to tree, clockwise around pool ending up in low trees around swampy area with rustic walk bridge.  We got to see some more head rubbing.  I think the parents are starting to tell their teenager to be prepared to move out soon.