nature
Barn owls nested in Manhattan for the first time ever
It started with a screech at night. Then a whole family appeared.
A family of barn owls has nested in a water tower on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which experts believe is the first known nesting in the borough in modern history. As many as eight birds, two adults and up to six juveniles, have been spotted at a hole in the tower, drawing birders out into the dark to watch. It started with screeching in September. Resident Elisabeth Williams and her husband kept hearing the same raspy call from their patio and identified the source using the Merlin bird ID app. On October 3, Williams finally photographed the culprit, confirmed it was a barn owl, and named it Scotty. Scotty was not flying solo. Barn owls have declined sharply in New York as development erased their habitat, so the nest matters. "The presence of a nest right in the middle of the country's biggest city is really exciting," says Jessica Wilson of the NYC Bird Alliance. People keep coming to look.
