Why is this plane flying in such a tight circle? I was in a car in NYC on 2/18 going from Queens to Manhattan. While going over a bridge I noticed some (what looked to me like) very tight circular contrails in the sky.

The plane was still there but very high up and/or far away and I couldn't make it out.

The photos here are from my phone, through the window of a moving car on a bridge, so not the best, but it's all I could get.

I never noticed anything like this before and I was curious what this might be.
those look like Holding pattern. Air Traffic controllers manage the flow of air traffic to and from airports. Sometimes it is necessary to hold a few of them before they can start an approach for landing.