Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
The Great-horned Owl nest of 2009
I have had the pleasure of taking thousands of photos of wildlife at The New York Botanical Garden since my first treks here in 2008. Among the birds of prey that I enjoy photographing are the Great-horned Owls. My first encounter with these winged hunters was back in March of 2009.
It was a little after 4:00 p.m. as I was walking down Azalea Way that I heard hooting coming from the Forest. I looked through the trees only to be surprised by the outline of an owl. Back then, I was shooting with a small point-and-shoot that had nowhere near the zoom range of my current camera. But it didn’t matter. What was important was that I got to see an amazing member of the animal kingdom for the first time, and I got a photo!
Later that month I spotted the female owl and one of her two hatchlings in the nest, which was located in a snag overlooking a trail near the edge of the Forest. I’ll never forget the day when a fluffy little head popped up and looked right into my camera. It’s still one of my all-time favorite photographs.
Although I have been photographing wildlife at The New York Botanical Garden since 2008, March 17th, 2012 was my last sighting of a Great-horned Owl. Since that time, during my frequent forays into the Thain Family Forest I could clearly hear them hooting, but have had zero luck in spotting them. But then this April, they made their reappearance when it became clear that one of the female owls had hatched two owlets.
News for birding fanatics! The owls are making themselves known again at the NYBG, or so recent sightings would suggest. Friend of the Garden Pat Gonzalez informs me that a birdwatching group caught a glimpse of our Great Horned Owls mating (that’s a good sign) in the Forest near the hemlocks, meaning that we may have another small parliament of owls (I maintain that collective nouns are the most fun you can have in language arts) terrorizing our chipmunk population in the near future.
Despite often being year-round residents at the NYBG, we generally see neither hide nor feather of these airborne hunters due to their nocturnal habit–at least up until breeding season when diurnal hunting becomes more common. Having the leaves off the trees at this time of year also makes spotting these raptors more of a cinch. But when a storm toppled the birds’ favorite nesting tree, it made locating them something of a challenge. Seeing the owls going into 2012 has proven a hit-or-miss endeavor for our local birders.
Chris Nagy is a Ph.D. student at CUNY, and a wildlife biologist at the Mianus River Gorge Preserve in Bedford, N.Y.
In December I had the opportunity to survey The New York Botanical Garden for Eastern Screech-Owls. I have been chasing Eastern Screech-Owls in the Bronx and Manhattan for nearly 7 years, as part of my Ph.D. research, and getting the chance to look for them in the Garden was a treat.
The easiest way to look for owls, if you’re willing to wander through the woods at night, is to play recordings of their vocalizations. Most owls communicate primarily through calls, and if there’s an owl nearby, it will probably call back when it hears your broadcast.
There have been no reports of Screech-Owls at the Garden for many years, and we didn’t find any this time either. (Ed. note – Though we have no Eastern Screech-Owls, the Garden is home to at least one Northern Saw-Whet Owl and a family of Great Horned Owls). But determining the places where owls are not is just as important as finding where they are.
By comparing the geographic location, habitat characteristics, and other variables in places where they are found versus where they are not, we can determine what features are important for a species. My hunch is that the absence of Eastern Screech-Owls at the Botanical Garden has more to do with the Garden’s location within the larger city than with any specific habitat quality. Alternatively, there also may be larger raptors at the Garden discouraging the smaller Screech Owls from readily calling back, or from making the Garden their home at all.
I’d like to thank NYBG staff, especially Jessica Arcate Schuler, for their help and allowing me to perform some of my research at the Garden.
Debbie Becker leads a free bird walk at the Garden every Saturday from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., beginning at the Reflecting Pool in the Leon Levy Visitor Center.
Now that the trees are shedding their leaves, I’ve begun taking the weekly Bird Walk group through the Forest in hopes of seeing the resident great horned owls. Sure enough, a couple of weeks ago we discovered a large great horned owl (GHO) perched on a low branch.
At first we could not decided whether it was the adult male or the adult female of the regular pair. (The male is at left in the photo, taken last year during their courting phase.) Upon closer inspection we decided it was neither; it was one of their offspring. It has been months since the babies fledged the nest. So what was this immature owl still doing in the Forest? Great horned owls reach sexual maturity after two years, but their territoriality begins almost immediately after they learn to feed themselves.
Could it be that the mature male has reached the end of his reign as the only male owl in the Forest? He is, after all, more than 20 years old. That is a long life span for a wild owl (captive GHOs can live up to 30 years), although the owl pairs in Pelham Bay Park and Van Cortlandt Park have been breeding for almost the same amount of time. Human encroachment has given them a unique domain: The highways and complexes around our forests have created a closed habitat, ensuring enough food, safety from many predators, and a long life span.
The time comes for all creatures when they get too old to go on or they are pushed out by the next generation. Observing the younger owl in the Forest saddened me and the birders on the tour, as we know it could only mean one thing: Our resident great horned owls may be pushed out by a more vibrant male that will take over the Garden’s Forest and begin looking for his own mate. It is a somber time for the resident birders. We are all getting older and in danger of being replaced by someone fresher and younger. Sadly, to everything there is a season, even for the great horned owls of The New York Botanical Garden.
Join us on Saturdays at 11 a.m. to look for the great horned owls and other birds of the Garden.
Learn more about the Garden’s resident great horned owls after the jump.
Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
The owlets’ father watches from his nearby roost.
Some of my favorite photographic subjects here at the Botanical Garden are its resident Great Horned Owls. Since 2009, I’ve had the pleasure of photographing and filming five of their nest sites. Sadly, 2014 was the last year that there were hatchlings here. That’s why this year’s brood was so special. But 2017 saw no ordinary owl nest. This is a tale of epic proportions!
Back in 2009, a pair of Red-tailed Hawks decided to build their nest inside the upper right pediment of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building. Rose and Hawkeye (the Red-tails that year, who are sadly no longer with us) had three hatchlings that year. It was a big deal for both staff and visitors. Each year since, I’ve always crossed my fingers in the hopes that one day the nest would be used again by our local Red-tails.
And it was used again alright. But by a completely new set of tenants!
Debbie Becker has been The New York Botanical Garden’s resident bird expert for over 25 years, and continues to lead her popular Bird Walks on Saturday mornings throughout much of the year. She maintains Birding Around NYC, where readers can find photo galleries of recent NYBG bird walks and up-to-date lists of species seen during each outing.
An Osprey makes off with lunch
As the end of summer draws near, deep sighs can be heard from school children and cries of delight from parents. The pleasures of the warmer months are shared by many in different ways. For those of us who are naturalists and birders, we endure the summer months dreaming about the end of August, because it signals the most exciting seasonal change: the great fall bird migration.
Our plants and trees—it is their time to shine—have spent the summer producing berries and seeds to nourish the migrating birds. The fruit of the crabapple, dogwood, and viburnum become ripe with juicy berries for Scarlet Tanagers, Baltimore Orioles, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, while the sweet gum tree offers nestled seeds—in sticky balls—to American Goldfinch, Pine Siskins, Red-winged Blackbirds and Purple Finch. Cedar Waxwings will also partake in harvesting berries for sustenance. Eastern Kingbirds use the ripe berries as lures to catch insects attracted to the sweet nectar. Birders and photographers fancy themselves capturing these scenes over and over again and flock to NYBG to enjoy the fall bird migration.
Our Fall Forest Weekends may have passed for another year, but we can still show some appreciation for the Forest denizens that make homes and hunting grounds among our many trees. This past Saturday and Sunday, Visitor Services Attendant Pat Gonzalez was again on hand during our Live Birds of Prey demonstration to soak up some knowledge and snap a few pictures. The results went straight into this slideshow of owls, hawks, falcons, and other raptors found in our neck of the woods.
The birds were brought in for a visit by the Theodore Roosevelt Sanctuary & Audubon Center, where many of them live as rehabilitated rescues that are no longer capable of surviving in the wild. But that hasn’t cramped their regal style any, as you’ll see below.
Try not to think of February as the grim side of winter. It’s self-defeating! Instead, turn it into your warm-up to spring, a time to prepare for sunnier months–whether that’s daydreaming away the cold, getting back in shape, or shuffling your bathing suits to an easy-to-reach spot in the closet. In some sense, that’s been the regimen here at the NYBG since the holidays passed, where we’re readying ourselves for the triumphant return of the green by reveling in all things palm-trees-and-coconuts. If you haven’t been to see Tropical Paradiseyet, you can’t say you’ve relaxed this season!
Under the glass of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where the snow and the sleet are stopped at the velvet rope, we’re celebrating our permanent collection–the towering tropical trees and broad-leaved beauties that transform our little corner of New York City into a living rain forest. And in between the tours through our misty cloud forest houses and the rare, exotic species growing within, we’re filling in all the little gaps with tropical music, art, and more. Whether you come for the Caribbean tunes, the ongoing photography events, or the simple opportunity to stuff your gloves in your pocket and breathe, you’ve got until February 24 to make it happen! After that, we’re not losing momentum–you’ll be saying hello to the Orchid Showbefore you can say “strawberry daiquiri.”
