I couldn’t stop by the owls for the fly out this evening, but since they were now visible in the daytime, I went to see them on my way home from the northern Manhattan hawk nests.  I ran into Jean and showed her the new tree.  Only Herringbone, which everyone in our group now agrees is the male adult, was visible.

After the Fledgling was spotted out in the open, I though I would have a good chance seeing it during the daytime on Saturday.  Chris emailed, that the owl was in the same tree as yesterday, so I went up in the early afternoon.

I couldn’t find the owls but a birder named Kathy was there watching two Starlings display and copulate.  I asked her if she had seen the owls and she said no but helped me look.  She found Herringbone in a tree just north of the Hawthorne tree.

The Fledgling and Trident made themselves visible when the Fledgling started looking at an ant and followed it as it moved along the tree!

Marie had been predicting that the Fledgling would soon be independent.  I had argued back that without tree cover or warm weather, the family might stay in the cavity longer than would be normal.

Today, Chris found the Fledgling in a Hawthorne tree, where it most likely spent the day.  Ironically, it was a warm day, trees were not leaf covered but enough buds were on the tree to hide the bird, and it was the correct time for the fledgling to start being independent.  So, no clear answer to our riddle.

Owl watchers for the evening were Jim, Chris, Noreen, Barbara and myself.

Finally, we had some sunshine and warmer weather on Thursday.  It was 55 and partly cloudy, with a wonderful sunset.  Marie, Jim, Barbara and I were at the fly out, plus some birders and softball players.

This evening, in fairly bright light, Trident and the Fledgling came out one after another, followed by Herringbone about ten minutes later.

Trident and Fledgling hung out for awhile, then all three went NE of nest, then we lost track of them.  Searches of the owls’ normal spots, came up empty.

There was a light rain, that turned into a rain shower after fly out.  Jean, Marianne, and I were at the fly out.  Chris, Fig and Chris’ boyfriend also stopped by briefly.

Fly out was first the fledgling in fairly bright light, followed after a good while by Trident and with another delay Herringbone.

The owls stay together within a hundred feet of the nest.  Soft songs were heard from the fledgling.  We saw the owls drop to the grass a few times, including the fledgling.  They might have been eating worms brought up by the rain.  The owls came back to the area around the nest cavity, but we lost them and called it a night as the rain had gotten stronger.

Tuesday, had three observers on a crystal clear night, Marie, Jean and Bruce.  Two owls were seen in the nest cavity, the fledgling and the adult we’ve been calling Trident because of its vertical forehead stripes.