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The Barred Owl went after one set of squirrels before going after another set without success. Late twilight seems to offer this owl an opportunity to go to various squirrel cavities just after fly out. Tonight it was two cavities, one near the roost site and one a few blocks north. The alarm calls of the squirrels only peaked the owls interest in going after them.

It's interesting to see the variety of behavior after fly out. Sometimes it is a neighborhood patrol to see where raptors have roosted, other items it going to cavities likely to have birds like Tufted Titmouse or squirrels, and other times it hunts things on the ground. I was hoping to learn some behavioral patterns after fly out, but it seems the behavior changes every night.

Tonight the Barred Owl used the time after fly out to do a "neighborhood watch" and investigate two roosting raptors, a Cooper's Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk. The juvenile Cooper's Hawk decided to fly out of its Spruce tree roost, but the Red-tailed Hawk stayed put. After investigating the neighbors, the owl went back to its normal woods. Sadly, these encounters were impossible to photograph.

The owl quickly went off out of view this evening. Unfortunately, two individuals in a case of Monkey See, Monkey Do, decided to play recordings to attract the owl.

This is exactly why the ABA recommends, "Limit the use of recordings and other audio methods of attracting birds, particularly in heavily birded areas, for species that are rare in the area, and for species that are threatened or endangered." If everyone in Central Park used recording to attract this owl, it would be run all around the park after fly out each day!

Sadly, I went to see the Barred Owl without knowing it, Christmas Day was a "Birding Bob Owl" tour. He played calls ten minutes before the normal fly out, causing the bird to return the calls and fly out prematurely. Unfortunately, this prevented all of those watching from seeing the normal stretching routine of the owl. Even with the owl in plain view calls were played repeatedly moving the owl around The Ramble. At one point a high intensity flashlight was shown on the owl, and it quickly flew off.

Bob's group saw the owl, but not its normal behavior. A friend described these tours as fast food birding, quick and easy but with empty calories.

Luckily, all was not lost this evening. After the show was over, the owl settled down, caught a bird roosting in leaf litter and ate it.

It was a strange evening weather wise. It was near 60 degrees, with high wind gusts and a brief rain shower. The owl had a relaxed fly out, and stayed close to the roost site before giving us the slip. The owl vocalizes around 4:42 on the video.

For about 45 minutes before fly out a juvenile Cooper's Hawk makes lots of cries from various perches around the owl's roost. The Barred Owl answers back, just before fly out. Vocalization are at 1:25 in response to Cooper's Hawk cries in the video. 

While I wasn't able to film the encounters, I tonight was the first time I noticed the Barred Owl investigating roosting hawks. It stopped by a roosting Cooper's Hawk, who I heard call. And then I saw it in the same tree of a Red-tailed Hawk who also called.

The evening was also the conjuction of Jupiter and Saturn, which I was able to watch from the top of the path near the Polish Statue around 80th Street.

The evening was enjoyable. The owl gave great looks in the roost tree, flew off to look for squirrels, and then went off to a Spruce Tree across the East Drive, which we would learn a week later was home to a roosting Cooper's Hawk.

On days where this Barred Owl has a quiet afternoon, it spend time hunting near the roost site. Today, it went to the ground twice and spent a good deal of time giving the small quiet group watching the owl lots of good views before flying out to sight.

Central Park had a visiting Long-eared Owl that was only seen for a day in mid-December in a stand of trees in Shakespeare Garden. I drew a large crowd, so I only stayed a few minutes and try to get great shots of the bird.

A Riverside Barred Owl flew out about twenty minutes early and slowly worked its way north about six blocks before I lost track of it.   The park is slopes downhill, so from the sideway, one has a great view of the treetops below. On Saturday, this made for almost perfect viewing.

Owl watching requires some luck.  Tonight, we had lots of it.  The owl was after squirrels in various trees and eventually was captivated by one in a small tree at eye level for about ten minutes before flying down near the highway and out of sight.

Last Sunday, one of the Riverside Park Owls went after Sweet Gum Balls, behavior I've never seen before.  It was lots of fun to watch, however in the middle of the play, an Owl Tour leader started playing recordings and interrupted the owl.  The owl left to investigate, circled around the tour and then flew south out of sight.

These images were taken on December 5th.  This evening, the Barred Owl went after cavities near its roost looking for squirrels and cavity roosting birds.  It must have gone to at least six cavities and squirrel dreys.  It was a nice night with lots of post fly out activity.

These photographs were taken on December 2nd of one of the two Barred Owls that have been in Riverside Park.  On this day, the owl was over a sidewalk right next to the street.  The owl was respectully watched at fly out by folks in the neighborhhod.  On some nights this owl is easy to watch after fly out, but not on this night.  I quickly went off into the darkness.

There is a Western Tanager in Chelsea.  It's a strikingly beautiful bird eating Crab Apples.  (It's on a residential street.  If you go, be careful to respect the stoops and gardens.  I understand folks were a bit worried about all of the binoculars and cameras today.)  I got there as the light was going from sunlight to shadows.  It was incredibly bright in the sunlight.

The Great Horned Owl, which has now left The Ramble of Central Park, engaged in some wonderful behavior with a branch on December 1st.  The leaf sticking out of it's mouth made me think it was a Hillbilly Owl.