It's not every day that you see a Great Horned Owl in a tree in Prospect Park. But that's what happened to me today and it was so exciting! I saw the female, a huge lady! and even had her look right at me with her piercing yellow eyes. She even spoke in her traditional owl way: hoo hoohoo hoo hoo hoooo hoooo. The experience was incredibly awesome!

Now, it's not easy finding an owl in the woods. All I knew was that it was in a certain location in a Norway Spruce. I felt a bit like a detective with my map of Prospect Park and binoculars. I ended up looking up the wrong tree for a while and had to google "Norway Spruce" to remind myself of what it looked like. I think I was looking at a white oak by mistake. So, I circled around a bit, staying in the general area and looking for an evergreen tree. Owls perch in these because they provide needed camouflage and privacy (apparently crows like to hassle them). Deciduous trees--which make up the bulk of wooded area--don't have leaves this time of year.

I was thrilled and a little proud of myself when I found the right tree species, but then a little bummed that I couldn't find the owl. So just picture Ms. Seitz, binoculars around her neck, reading glasses perched just above her lip, camera wrapped around her wrist, and toting a big bag of other stuff, tripping over saplings and running into bushes just trying to get the best vantage point to see the owl. This took some time and some doing. A couple of people passed by and didn't pay any great attention to me, but for the most part I was alone in my determination to see the owl. And then, it happened. I saw what looked like brown feathers. I focused my binoculars and stared. Yes, feathers! Yes, a huge owl! I must have stared at the owl for close to an hour. Occasionally the owl moved her head and even looked at me for a while with those golden eyes. I even saw her scratch an itch she had. I snapped some photos, which admittedly are pretty awful, but they are here in all their blurry glory to prove that an amazing Great Horned Owl (and her mate...who I didn't see) lives in Brooklyn!

So why is this so cool and unusual? Well from what I hear from birders, Great Horned Owls have not nested successfully in Brooklyn in 100 years! So let's hope this pair likes it here and sets up a nest in the tree, and lay eggs, and raises young. Just how exciting would that be? Also, we don't see lots of owls in Brooklyn compared to say, pigeons, starlings and house sparrows, so just seeing an owl in this urban environment is downright wonderful! I feel so lucky!

Now, if you want to hear the Great Horned Owl, check out this link: 
http://www.birdjam.com/#