Owl Studies Continues
Still not greatby Dan Hartman
March 10, 2019
After failing on my initial venture out to listen for singning owls, I tried again on the 5th.Post #1 was silent, but Post #1.5 gave me my first singing owl of the season. He was just north of the road about 125 yards.
Nothing more until Post #3.5. A boreal was blasting away just above me to the south. Then it quickly changed into a prolong call, meaning he had attracted a mate!
My next song came from far to the south at Post #5.5.
A good night. It's obviously not going to be a great year. Heck, in the past, I've gotten as many as a dozen boreals calling on a single night. But, the prolong song is significant.
Out again the next night, Cindy and I heard one boreal. However, it was at Post #3.5 where I heard the prolong song the night before.
On the 8th we got two singing boreals. Once again at Post #3.5 and another at Post #4. The same place we had heard one back on February 1st.
Last night, we got only one song,but it was Post #1.5, the same place we heard one on the 5th.
Today I snowshoed in to where we heard the boreal last night. The snowshoeing was not good at times. The snow was 40 inches deep and I was attempting to zig zag up a steep incline. I didn't make it as high as I would have liked, but I still made it far enough to locate two cavities the owl is probably considering for nesting sites.
Note: While the owl study has begun kinda slowly, we've seen other wildlife. Moose, bison, flying squirrel, fox and marten have all passed in front of our headlights.
