A long-shot from the apartment yesterday morning.
The night before, Friday, when the snow started, I was looking out the window about 11pm. It was a white night, the lights of the city bouncing down from the low clouds. A large bird came from overhead, just a story or two higher than my fourth floor. It coasted with a light, easy motion of the wings. Its direction was northward. Towards Green-Wood, perhaps, five blocks away.
It was a magical moment. I’ve only seen owls flying a few times, mostly taking off from their roost at twilight as they begin their nocturnal rounds.
So here was the night’s great hunter, deep inside Brooklyn. In truth, there have been Great Horned Owls roosting in Green-Wood for years now. The same ones? I’ve long wondered about their range. Clearly, they go beyond the cemetery fence. We knew that from their nesting seasons in Prospect Park. In 2011, they had two fledglings. As far as I know that’s been their only successful breeding season. Not so long ago I went listening for them after nightfall; nothing was heard above the traffic.
And then the surprise of the owl flying overhead.
Backyard and Beyond 
In the height of the storm, I had a nice red-tailed hawk posing for me in a tree right outside a friend’s window. It sat there quite patiently as I took a number of pictures. I joked with my friends that it was frozen in place, but I suspect that a more accurate reason was that it saw no point in flying around when all the birds and squirrels were hunkered down waiting out the storm. It was quite fluffed up, with large snow flakes resting on its head.
Here’s a photo of my snowbird.
Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2016 13:02:13 +0000
Do you have a link for this photo? Your email showed up, I try to never let an email be published.