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It had been several months since our last trip to Staten Island. It was also our first trip to this place in the spring time. As we begin our journey down the main road, we found all the fields that were previously flooded we are now dry. There was an abundance of wildflowers everywhere. On the other hand there were no raptors. Neither the telephone poles nor the tree branches resulted in any hawks, falcons or kestrels. However among all the wildflowers, there were lots and lots of red-winged blackbirds singing their songs. There was also a lot of agricultural activity. Heavy equipment was plowing the fields and doing what needs to be done to get ready for planting. We continued down the road and noticed that the paved half had been resurfaced recently. Nice. We continued past the paved area all away down the dirt road to the barn where we find the owls. An examination of the water tower where the great horned owls live found the same large animal we last saw in November. The second owl, a large fluffy gray bird that was accompanying the big horned owl in November, was dead up in the rafters with one of his feet hanging down in the air. So sad. With the bright sun at a difficult angle and some strong winds, photography was challenging.


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