Tuesday 2 February 2021

If You Are A 'Twitcher',

or as they say in common parlance, a birdwatcher,


and live near Central Park, New York, there is some good news for you, twitchers flocked to the park to catch a glimpse of a rare bird that has not been seen in the area since 1890, it was a snowy owl, (Bubo scandiaca), photograph above Stock Photos from GUOGIANG XUE/Shutterstock, a birder, (I guess the moniker 'twitcher' is not used in the USA), who runs the Twitter account Manhattan Bird Alert read about an owl sighting on a tracking site and sounded the alarm.

“A SNOWY OWL, a mega-rarity for Central Park,” he wrote, “is now in the middle of the North Meadow ball fields.” The cluster of baseball and softball diamonds might have reminded the owl of its native hunting grounds or the sandy beaches of Queens and Long Island where owls often stop by in the winter.

birders flanked the baseball fields in the North Meadow hoping for a glimpse, photograph credit Daniel Avila/NYC Parks, for the full story have a look here at The New York Times, let us hope the crowds only bring cameras!


2 comments:

jpo5626 said...

This brings good memories of when I lived in Utah the Wasatch Mountains National Forest area. Our home was on 10 acres high in the mountains, with 3 beaver ponds taking up the back section of the property. Every winter we would see many Artic Owls from the North, migrating down to hunt. They would hang around our beaver ponds, waiting for smaller game to come for a drink. Two things impressed me most about this special bird, the huge wing span (as they are large) and the snow white color. Every time we saw one, it was a special treat! Great memeories...thanks
John and Alley

PattayaStan said...

Dear John and Alley, I am so envious of where you lived, I just wish we could move to the countryside and watch nature at its best, although we live in the park, it is still too near towns and the city for many of the UK's wildlife to be present, plus of course the huge number of visitors, especially ones with their dogs off of their leads to give wildlife much of a chance of peace and quiet, we are still lucky with some birds and of course the foxes, and as of a couple of days ago grey squirrels, in case you missed the post the fox caught one, although I am sure there are still a few left in the park, best regards, Stan and Diana.