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Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Wildlife Photographer’s Notebook: Great-Horned Owls 2014

Posted in Wildlife on May 27 2014, by Patricia Gonzalez

Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.

The Great-horned Owl nest of 2009
The Great-horned Owl nest of 2009

I have had the pleasure of taking thousands of photos of wildlife at The New York Botanical Garden since my first treks here in 2008. Among the birds of prey that I enjoy photographing are the Great-horned Owls. My first encounter with these winged hunters was back in March of 2009.

It was a little after 4:00 p.m. as I was walking down Azalea Way that I heard hooting coming from the Forest. I looked through the trees only to be surprised by the outline of an owl. Back then, I was shooting with a small point-and-shoot that had nowhere near the zoom range of my current camera. But it didn’t matter. What was important was that I got to see an amazing member of the animal kingdom for the first time, and I got a photo!

Later that month I spotted the female owl and one of her two hatchlings in the nest, which was located in a snag overlooking a trail near the edge of the Forest. I’ll never forget the day when a fluffy little head popped up and looked right into my camera. It’s still one of my all-time favorite photographs.

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My First Close-Up Encounter

Posted in Around the Garden on August 15 2012, by Patricia Gonzalez

Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG volunteer and avid wildlife photographer. She can often be found taking photographs around the Garden.

It was a little after noon on February 26 of 2009 that I enjoyed one of the most amazing experiences of my life. By that time, I had already been shooting photographs at The New York Botanical Garden for a year, and it seemed like every creature living in the Garden had cooperated with my camera except for one species: the Red-tailed Hawks which often hunt throughout the NYBG. I had been able to get a few shots, but always from a distance and far overhead.

Other times, I couldn’t ready my camera fast enough and my subject matter would disappear into the sky.

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Smile for the Birdie

Posted in Around the Garden, People, Photography, Wildlife on May 31 2012, by Matt Newman

What’s a forest without the chatter of songbirds, or a pond without a curmudgeonly duck or two? Tom Andres, an Honorary Research Associate at the NYBG, won’t even consider the possibility. He’s too busy snapping pictures of our avian population.

It’s no great secret that The New York Botanical Garden is a northern birder’s paradise, home to owls, hawks, herons, and woodpeckers. Debbie Becker’s Saturday Bird Walks remain a staple at the Garden, now over 25 years since she began guiding groups of amateur and veteran birdwatchers alike through our 250-acre landscape. Even so, populations change with the seasons–migrants flood the Garden with song and color one week, only to disappear the next.

Tom doesn’t let the fickle nature of the birder’s obsession hamper his photography, much less his fascination. “The Garden plays an important role for feathered visitors,” he writes, “especially as a refueling point during migration season.” The Bronx River Corridor–winding through the Garden–is a major draw for neotropical birds migrating toward northern breeding grounds, or heading south for warmer climates. This explains the sudden influx of loud and bright warblers arriving early in spring, making a much-needed pit stop before they move on.

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Life on the Ledge: Red-Tailed Hawks at the NYBG

Posted in Adult Education, Around the Garden, Learning Experiences, Photography, Wildlife on March 15 2012, by Joyce Newman

Joyce H. Newman is the editor of Consumer Reports’ GreenerChoices.org, and has been a Garden Tour Guide with The New York Botanical Garden for the past six years.

Walking by the NYBG Library Building yesterday, we spotted a huge Red-tailed Hawk as it swooped across the trees and sailed to the top of a giant oak. During the daytime, these hawks are the top avian predators in our area and very impressive to behold (at night, the Great-horned Owls reign supreme). A group of bird watchers on the path gazed upward with large binoculars and telescopes.

Maybe this bird is a distant cousin of Pale Male, the famous Red-tailed Hawk who settled in Manhattan in the 1990s, defying hazardous urban living conditions and continuing to produce young hawks to this day. Or it could be a cousin of last year’s celebrity Red-tailed Hawk, Violet, who enchanted the residents of Washington Square Park in Manhattan before succumbing to a heart condition. Or perhaps it is one of the Garden’s own celebrity hawks, Rose and Vince, or one of their many, many offspring.

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Looking Back: November 2011

Posted in Around the Garden on January 1 2012, by Matt Newman

After October’s storm and the following clean-up period, we hopped right into November’s seasonal preparations with the Holiday Train Show. Our kiku bid a fond “adieu” as they made room in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory for New York’s most cherished winter tradition. And did I mention the leaves on the trees? Fall had arrived–loud, clear, and bursting with the warmest hues.

Paul Busse and his team at Applied Imagination are nothing if they’re not diligent (and brilliantly creative). Setting up the Holiday Train Show takes no small amount of time or ingenuity, and for the last 20 years they have continued to produce one of New York’s most delightful holiday experiences. This year, we set up a time-lapse camera in the Conservatory so our readers could get a better idea of just how the whole process goes down.

Changing Seasons in the Conservatory

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