Owls

Wednesday, 3-1-06

The third night of only the female.  Was the male badly injured?  Did we get the sexes wrong and are they nesting?  A mystery.

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Lots of preening this evening.
She lands on the wall that separates Central Park from the city, and goes into the city to hunt this evening.
It was a crisp winter evening.
Owls

Sunday, 2-26-06

On Sunday it felt bitterly cold, (25F with 25MPH winds).  It took awhile for an owl to appear in the hole.  The first sighting was around 5:45 p.m.  As on Saturday, there had a jockeying for position with the two owls exchanging spots before the fly out.

We also got to see the two of them together twice, a rare event. Quite a change from the earlier behavior of 30 minutes of one followed by 2 minutes of the second!  Tonight, we also had the first observation of the owl who usually files out second, flying out first.

The owl we assume is the male appears at 5:45 later than normal, but not unexpectedly due to the cold weather.
The owl we assume is the female.
Both adults.
There really are two adult owls in there.  (The quality of these photos are less then I would have liked but the wind and the cold made it very difficult on Sunday.  My camera was vibrating on my tripod and my batteries were failing due to the cold.)
The female stays close by and allows me to photograph her this evening.
Owls

Saturday, 2-25-06

I was the first to arrive at the fly out on Saturday afternoon.  I was relieved to see the Eastern Screech-Owl, who was almost run over by a car on Friday, standing in the entrance to the tree cavity.

After the problems of Friday, the fly out was back to a later time.  But something new occurred, the two owls jockeyed for position.  When it came time to fly out the owls switched places a few times, before the male left followed by the female.

He looked just fine after his close call of the earlier day.
Hey, it’s not your turn yet.  She didn’t manage to take his place.
He kept his position.
But then she did trade places.
He gets back in place and they flies out.
She flies out second.
The male looked great on a low branch near his tree cavity after the fly out.  He stayed a good long while before flying off for the night.  He looked extra cautious and it seemed very reasonable.