Urban Hawks

December 8, 2007December 23, 2020Other Birds

Nashville Warbler in December

While watching the LEOs (Long-eared Owls), a father and daughter came by to watch them. We got to talking and they went over the birds they had seen. One of the was a Nashville Warbler.

Now any warbler in December would be unusual, so I had to check it out. It was located just west of the North Gate House on the Reservoir. It was between the fence and the water.

Update: I got a nice note from Tom Fiore, explaining that there is a history of late Nashville Warblers in Central Park, and they’ve even been on few Christmas Bird Count lists.

December 8, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Long-eared Owl becomes Long-eared Owls

The number of Long-eared Owls in the park doubled, when a second owl was discovered at Friday’s fly out by Ben Cacace and Jean Dean. Both were visible, although one was a lump in the shadows and impossible to photograph.

December 6, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Long-eared Owl

Congratulations and thanks to Lincoln Karim for finding a Long-eared Owl in Central Park today. It was the first sighting of a Long-eared Owl in the park this year.

December 5, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

More Eastern Screech-Owl Photographs…

Our two owls seem to be sleeping in separate beds each evening. We have one sleeping consistently in one cavity, who is then greeted by a second owl, who appears out of nowhere, just after fly out.

On Tuesday, Marianne Girds saw the two owls copulate, so we definitely have a couple.

December 2, 2007December 23, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Sunday Around The Great Lawn

Lola was on the Beresford when I looked for her early on Sunday afternoon.

She was looking down at something, so I went to look for it. I was hoping for a Long-Eared Owl, but found this…

I then saw Pale Male at the bottom of the Great Lawn. He switched trees a few times.

Here he’s taking off to fly to another tree.

We had a number of “intruders”, including a Cooper’s Hawk, American Kestrel and this Turkey Vulture.

Pale Male on one of the baseball backstops.

Pale Male was found to be on his favorite MET security camera. He soon flew off, towards Turtle Pond.

While watching for owls, the first year hawk came by.

It ended up in a tree for the night in what I call the DMZ. The zone between the Central Park South hawks and Pale Male and Lola.

Enjoy the winter in Central Park, but remember you’re going to be kicked out come spring by the old folks!

December 2, 2007December 21, 2020Owls

Screech Owls On A Snowy Sunday

I came into the park during a break in the snow storm to look for the screech owls.

There was no sign of them, so I went off hawk watching. It was a good day for watching Pale Male and Lola, as there were other birds in their territory including a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk, an American Kestrel, a Turkey Vulture and a Cooper’s Hawk.

I went back in the late afternoon to look for any sign of the owls and got to see one fly out and then got to watch them for about an hour after the fly out. The combination of the snow and low cloud cover created a glowing background to see the owls in the dark.