Owl and lilacs

After work yesterday, I went up to Central Park to see and smell the flowers along the Lilac Walk. It's early for lilacs yet, but a few were fully in bloom and a few more starting: delightful but not overwhelming. I smelled all of them, started to walk away, then turned back for another visit to one bush. Mmm, lilac. I suppose other species are sometimes aware when they're reacting to tropisms.

Other things in bloom nearby included the last of the forsythia and some wonderful flowering cherries. (If I don't happen to visit the park in those two weeks, I can easily forget how many fine cherry trees are growing there.) I wandered past the south edge of the lake to Strawberry Fields, where I saw some birders settled in with serious binoculars, on tripods. I asked someone standing there what they were looking at. She told me it was an owl, but she didn't know what kind. I waited a minute or two, and when someone else walked away, I asked one of the people if I could look through his binoculars. He said yes.

He had them focused on the owl. An Eastern screech owl, he said. Sleeping in full view on a tree branch, facing toward us (well, full view to birders at the right angle and with good eyes or good optical tools: probably quite adequately concealed from anything the owl needs to worry about). I took a nice long look: the tripod helped, because while I can't stand entirely still on a slope, any movement of the image was only from my own movement, and I didn't come close to losing the owl. He commented that he likes this place and time of year because "you can see three new birds a day."

When I got out our book to add the owl to the life list, I realized that it's been ages since cattitude or I had gone out actively looking for birds. The previous entry is the peacock I saw along I-84 last summer. (Some of this, of course, is that after a while you know most of the local birds: but I suspect I could add a few species by taking the A train to the right stop.)

Note: the Lilac Walk is just north of the Sheep Meadow: about 69th Street at the center of the park. The best of the flowering cherries are just west of the Reservoir, but I didn't walk that far north this time, just enjoyed a few scattered near the Lilac Walk. Strawberry Fields is at the west edge of the park, near the 72nd Street entrance; the south end of the B/C station is handier for the Lilac Walk, the north end for Strawberry Fields, and that's how I traveled yesterday. I thought of walking down to Columbus Circle but one foot didn't like that idea.

Owl and lilacs

After work yesterday, I went up to Central Park to see and smell the flowers along the Lilac Walk. It's early for lilacs yet, but a few were fully in bloom and a few more starting: delightful but not overwhelming. I smelled all of them, started to walk away, then turned back for another visit to one bush. Mmm, lilac. I suppose other species are sometimes aware when they're reacting to tropisms.

Other things in bloom nearby included the last of the forsythia and some wonderful flowering cherries. (If I don't happen to visit the park in those two weeks, I can easily forget how many fine cherry trees are growing there.) I wandered past the south edge of the lake to Strawberry Fields, where I saw some birders settled in with serious binoculars, on tripods. I asked someone standing there what they were looking at. She told me it was an owl, but she didn't know what kind. I waited a minute or two, and when someone else walked away, I asked one of the people if I could look through his binoculars. He said yes.

He had them focused on the owl. An Eastern screech owl, he said. Sleeping in full view on a tree branch, facing toward us (well, full view to birders at the right angle and with good eyes or good optical tools: probably quite adequately concealed from anything the owl needs to worry about). I took a nice long look: the tripod helped, because while I can't stand entirely still on a slope, any movement of the image was only from my own movement, and I didn't come close to losing the owl. He commented that he likes this place and time of year because "you can see three new birds a day."

When I got out our book to add the owl to the life list, I realized that it's been ages since cattitude or I had gone out actively looking for birds. The previous entry is the peacock I saw along I-84 last summer. (Some of this, of course, is that after a while you know most of the local birds: but I suspect I could add a few species by taking the A train to the right stop.)

Note: the Lilac Walk is just north of the Sheep Meadow: about 69th Street at the center of the park. The best of the flowering cherries are just west of the Reservoir, but I didn't walk that far north this time, just enjoyed a few scattered near the Lilac Walk. Strawberry Fields is at the west edge of the park, near the 72nd Street entrance; the south end of the B/C station is handier for the Lilac Walk, the north end for Strawberry Fields, and that's how I traveled yesterday. I thought of walking down to Columbus Circle but one foot didn't like that idea.

more later

But after feeling like I had an unproductive weekend, today I worked a full day, did bank stuff at lunchtime, went to the gym, and proofread on the train home.

more later

But after feeling like I had an unproductive weekend, today I worked a full day, did bank stuff at lunchtime, went to the gym, and proofread on the train home.