On about a third of the nights I’ve watched the Central Park Barred Owl, I’ve lost track of it. Tonight, I learned my mistake. It’s always about prey, not location.

The night started like many others. With the calmer winds, the owl was on a standard perch, and made one call. It took a few steps west and stretched, the standard one wing down, the other wing down and both wings back stretches before flying out.

The bird quickly made long flights west northwest, much farther than I would have expected. But once the owl got to its final perch to hunt I understood why. This section of the park the owl uses as home base, has three people who feed lots of food to birds, squirrels and sometimes raccoons. Each feeding location, due to the excess food, also has colonies of rats.

I’ve always ignored looking around tonight’s hunting location because it is brightly lit and has lots of foot and electric cart traffic. I thought no owl would want to be out in the open in the bright light. But for the owl this location is a buffet, and in the trade off between privacy and food, food clearly was winning.

So, I’ve learned my lesson. It’s all about prey.

The photographs all used the lighting that was there. The street lights, two electric cart lights and the focus assist light of an older DSLR being used by another photographer. I didn’t add any.