Owls

Sunday, 3-19-06 through Saturday, 3-25-06

This week continued with the same regularity as the previous week.  Only one owl, which we presume to be the female, was seen.  As the days get longer, the fly outs are now around 6:25-6:30 p.m.

If the young survived single parenthood, they should have fledged by now, so at this point we must assume the father perished a few days after his automobile accident, and the hatchlings five to seven days later.

The female was observed in the Ramble on Saturday, catching and eating a mouse.

Sunday, 3/19/06, just before fly out.
Wednesday, 3/22/06, just before fly out.
Friday, 3/24/06 about twenty minutes before fly out.
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds

Merlin and other birds

One goes through periods where one doesn’t see anything special while birding, and then all at once you turn a corner and see lots of interesting birds.  This happened to me on Thursday evening around 6 p.m.  I photographed four birds, including a new bird for my Central Park list, a Merlin on a ten minute walk from the East 70’s to the West 70’s.

Merlin
Wood Duck
Winter Wren
Brown Thrasher
Owls

Saturday, 3-18-06

Yet another day with only the mother being seen at fly out.  Birds have very high mortality rates.  As each day passes, we realize we must consider that it is more than likely that the father has passed away and that the mother was unable to raise her chicks on her own.

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Other Birds

Brown-headed Cowbird

Daffodils are blooming and other signs of Spring are all around the park.  The diversity of birds being reported has increased greatly in the last ten days.

The 5th Avenue hawk watchers found this Brown-headed Cowbird behind their bench at the model boat pond on Saturday.

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