Well, I hadn't done any owling in any of my blocks. The next full moon is
June 18, so I checked the weather forecast. Last night was to be clear, but
each of the next four nights were to be partly cloudy, so out I went - into
the darkness with Cookie for protection and my nano i-pod and helpless
excuse for a speaker.
9:35, dusk. The first stop was a favorite cemetery on Horns Hill Road.
Parked the truck, lights off, sound on - let's try eastern screech owl
first.
Almost immediately, I got a response call from the opposite side of the
cemetery. I played the call again, hoping it would move in closer. Then,
silent as a shadow, a large bird flew within three feet of my open truck
window before swooping up and landing on utility wires to my left. It was
still light enough to see the head and the strong striping on the breast -
barred owl.
Wow, this was too easy - two owls within a minute of playing the first tape!
Needless to say, I didn't play that tape anymore in that area, to protect
the little guy from a possible predator.
So, I moved on to the next block. And the next, and the next, and the next.
I stopped at at least 20 other locations, each of which should have had
enough woodlands to "hold" some kind of owl, to no avail. I continued
owling for three hours, and the ONLY owls I saw or heard were those two at
the very first location. There may have been a flying screech owl in one
location, but it was pretty dark, despite the bright moon, and I couldn't be
sure. It didn't respond vocally to the call, just flew across the road into
a tree, if it was even an owl. Obviously, I didn't count that.
So, I'll keep trying this week, and see what happens. Really, I'm a morning
person. I'm usually up by 5:30, even without an alarm. This owling
business is for the birds!
Those of you who don't do OBBA II may not know, but when one logs on to
enter observations, one starts with a "Home Page" which has the atlasser's
"statistics". To date, I have spent a total of 106.5 hours doing
observations in my seven blocks, traveled 845 miles over the two years I've
been working these blocks, and the 935 submissions add up to 98 different
species total. Even so, the highest total in any one block is 73, the block
where I had the two owls last night. The bird which other nearby
blockowners have reported that I have not seen in any block, is,
surprisingly, ring-necked pheasant. It was also reported in the 1982-1987
Atlas in one of my priority blocks.
Have a great day. I was out again at 5:30 this morning. The air is cool
and dead still. Perfect for birding. As soon as I finish breakfast, I'm
out of here!
Margaret Bowman
Licking Co.
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