How to Spot Snowy Owls in NYC
For the second year in a row, people are reporting sightings of the Arctic bird in NYC. Here鈥檚 where to find them.
Along with , New York City has lured another Arctic visitor鈥擲nowy Owls.
Seven Snowy Owls have been spotted near the city this season, though this is nothing compared to when owls were 鈥渁ppearing like magic鈥 in the eastern United States in their greatest numbers in half a century, as Scott Weidensaul wrote in 爆料公社 magazine. But compared to the rest of New York history, when you seldom saw a snowy, this is a rare urban storm you don鈥檛 want to miss.
Snowy Owls live at the top of the world with the polar bears, says of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. 鈥淭hey are like creatures from another planet.鈥 By weight, they are the largest owls out there. While the birds feed their young small mammals, adults subsist mainly on other birds, he says. 鈥淭hey鈥檒l go offshore at night and hunt sleeping ducks.鈥 Weidensaul writes that he鈥檚 even seen them snatch Great Blue Herons and Canada Geese.
There are two main ideas for why these foreign raptors are flying south: either good conditions in the Arctic causing a population boom, or resources are low at home and the owls are out hunting for food.
Either way, this is an exceptional event. So go see them鈥攋ust don鈥檛 get too chummy with these natural predators. 鈥淭hey get stressed ,鈥 says Bate. They鈥檙e out of their natural habitat and like to rest by day so they can . Bate suggests not wriggling in to get that perfect photo. Take a good pair of binoculars instead, or even better, a scope.
Before they fly back towards permafrost and polar bears, try to spot them at these locations: Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn is a traditionally popular sighting ground, as is Breezy Point and Jamaica Bay in Queens. Governor鈥檚 Island saw its in remembered history this year, and Jones Beach along the Atlantic can lend some unbelievable sightings, says Bate鈥攕ometimes you can even see the Arctic travelers 鈥渙n the dunes overlooking the ocean.鈥
If you鈥檙e unable to travel to these lookouts, here鈥檚 the second best vantage鈥攐wl photos taken in and around New York City during last year鈥檚 Snowy blizzard.