Owl Studies
This year might turn out okby Dan Hartman
March 26, 2019
My owl study continues, which is good as this time last year I had already given up.It's been a strange winter. Mild for the first two thirds, and then a killer finish. How would that affect the owl population?
Early in the month, I was off to a slow start. Geting 2-3 boreal songs a night wasn't promising. But one thing that gave me hope was the number of boreals calling. By the 20th Cindy and I had identified 11 or 12 individual owls. Problem is they weren't singing often. We might get 3 one night and then 3 different ones the next night. If it had been the same 3 different ones the next night, I would say it's going to be a bad year. But with the number we have calling there is hope.
After a bad night, (no calls), on the 20th, the super moon night, we took a couple nights off.
On the 23rd we heard 5 songs, a high for the month. Even going out in a mini blizzard on the 24th we still got 3 songs, and last night Cindy and I heard 4.
I think in the next week we could get 8 to 9 in a single night. That being said, there's a forecast that predicts up to 24 inches of snow later this week.
A pygmy owl has been tooting every afternoon below the cabin.
Cindy and I ventured north to check out a couple horned owl nests we found last year and discovered both were occupied.
