I’ve spent almost a full month observing the Central Park Snowy Owl, who arrived on January 27^th. It has been a pleasure to learn more about this bird every few days.  I’ve been able to watch her 13 times, sometime until Midnight when the park closes.

She’s done very well at adapting to the park.  She easily gets prey and has found safe places to eat and perch.

Each night I was with her, I saw something new and learned more about this young female owl.  She’s been a delight to study.

This is what I’ve observed so far:

• Roost location: Unknown Harlem Rooftops about 10 blocks north of the park.
• Known evening territory: 86th to 110th in Central Park, usually between or near the East and West Drives.
• Routine: First being seen at dusk, when the sky is a dark blue.  Usually appearing at the Compost Heap, then moving to the North Meadow backstops and fields, although I think for the first few weeks she went directly to the meadow.  She would often do a loop to the Tennis Courts, the North Gatehouse, and back to the North Meadow.  For about a week, she regularly used a tower of the North Gatehouse and would do flights over the reservoir.  (The use of the Tennis Courts area was more common when people or dogs were on the North Meadow.)
• Perches: Three trees around the Compost Heap (always near the top), all of the backstops of the North Meadow (where she had favorite spots on each backstop), a few trees north of the Reservoir and south of the North Meadow, the western of the two North Gatehouses on the Reservoir using the south west tower exclusively, and various locations on the Tennis Court fences.
• Hunting locations: The Compost Heap and the north west corner of the North Meadow.   She clearly was hunting in other places.  She would leave the North Meadow and come back with a Brown Rat in under five minutes.  Also, she would often go south west of the Tennis Courts returning with a rat, but it was unclear where she went.  She also was seen on the outer fencing of the Tennis Courts facing outwards, so I suspect she was hunting directly at the courts.
• Prey: Brown Rats caught easily.  Usually one, but sometimes two before midnight (with the park closed from midnight to 6 am, there could have be additional feedings we didn’t see.)
• Eating locations: Always on the ground, primarily the eastern half of the North Meadow on ballfield 10, but occasionally on the Tennis Courts and once she was seen on the ice of the frozen Harlem Meer.
• Eating behavior: Although she once ate a rat in once large gulp, she often took her time eating a rat.  It could take her up to an hour to consume a rat, often pulling out and leaving the entrails.
• Post feeding behavior: She would clean her beak in the snow, often taking bites of snow, and then do lots of short hops and waddles.
• Bathing: Once on a balmy 45 degree F night, she took a bath in a puddle in the North Meadow.

I was concerned that posting information about the Snowy Owl, especially before her use of the Compost Heap and the North Meadow was common knowledge would led to the large crowds that were at the North Gatehouse to follow her around and interrupt her hunting and eating.  So, I delayed publishing my posts until now.  At this point the genie is out of the bottle, due to posts on social media, so it no longer makes sense to embargo my posts.

I’ve wanted to document as much of her behavior as possible, so you’ll see that I’ve often times included way too many photographs and video footage.  Feel free to fast forward or skip through the videos.  I just wanted to make sure there was a proper documentation of a once in a century event.  This young owl’s appearance needed more than just a set of checkboxes on eBird.

I would recommend reading my posts in order.  Start with this one, and then navigate forward.