Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Screech Owl

This evening I went outside and planted wildflowers (gloriosa daisy, sweet william, and parsley) in the butterfly meadow. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so this is a good time for my shear, scratch, and stomp method of sowing wildflower seeds.

On the way back to the house, I heard a loud flutter in the branches overhead. Out flew a little screech owl! He landed in another tree just overhead. I was only about 12-15 feet away from him. I've often heard screech owls calling "hoo-OOO ... hoo, hoo, hoo" in the distance. They're common around here and even in the towns. But this is the first time I've actually seen one; they're really shy. I've seen barn owls and great horned owls, though. I'm delighted to have a screech owl in the yard. I hope he likes it here. I was intrigued to read that they like to nest in old woodpecker holes, of which there are plenty in our yard. They're so small for raptors, they fit almost anywhere; he was barely a foot tall.

Earlier today we saw a vulture perched on a fence post as we drove into town, right at eye level. We often see them soaring overhead, and sometimes on the road eating roadkill. This was the first time I got a really good close view of one. They're interesting birds too.
Tags: gardening, illinois, nature, personal
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  • 4 comments
je_reviens

je_reviens

July 28 2009, 04:34:45 UTC 11 years ago

ooooOOOOOooo!!

I totally LOOOVE owls.
wetdryvac

wetdryvac

July 28 2009, 17:19:45 UTC 11 years ago

Hmm, neither the western or the eastern screech owl has song in quite that pattern as far as I know - I'm one of those horrible people, a birdsong hobbyist - and looking at the range of the western screech owl: http://www.birdweb.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=242 I'm thinking you may have heard and seen something else. (This based on my memory of your being in Illinois.)

One of my favorite sources for owl calls is http://www.owlpages.com/sounds.php - they sometimes function a little abstractly (by which I mean their pages are sometimes broken) but when they're running correctly, it's really easy to pull an ID by call from them and contrast it with ranges via other sources. I generally use Audubon organizations within the same general region as the core habitat area for the bird I'm examining.

Regardless, seeing owls is always a lovely thing, and I missed drifting off to sleep the sounds of the Maine wildlife, which happily includes a number of owls.
ysabetwordsmith

O_O

ysabetwordsmith

July 28 2009, 18:12:31 UTC 11 years ago

Well bugger. You're right: that's not the sound at all. But every time someone's identified the "hooOOO ... hoo, hoo, hoo" call they've said it was a screech owl. (I am now severely peeved with a non-trivial number of wildlife staff, and some neighbors of my grandparents' who are all dead and would be inconvenient to track down and yell at.)

Umm ... the Flammulated owl makes a noise like a fart. And the Northern saw-whet owl sounds like a forklift backing up.

The loud, trembling HOO HOO-HOO HOO of the great horned owl matches other birds I've seen and heard here, and the range is right.

*sigh* I went through all the owl calls on the first page, and none match. I looked up the owls that live in Illinois, and none of those calls match. If I have time later, I'll go through all the other owls on the second page. I'm starting to wonder if the sound I'm thinking of is made by something other than an owl.

Based on the pictures, the bird I saw might've been a barred owl, possibly a northern saw-whet owl or a short-eared owl. I couldn't get a good look because of the dim light. It was a small stocky bird with a rounded head.

This is going to drive me nuts until I figure it out. However, thank you for pointing out the discrepancy.
wetdryvac

Re: O_O

wetdryvac

July 28 2009, 23:58:02 UTC 11 years ago

The bard owl has at least one call that's fairly specific - and very similar to what you described, a "Who-who-who-who, who-who-who-whooah."

The grouping is short-gap-short-shortergap-short-long, short-gap-shorter-gap-short-long, where the last long in the second group is a whooah. More airy on the end, with a drop in pitch.

Hang on a shake. I can't find it online at the moment, but I can imitate it.

http://wetdryvac.vox.com/library/post/wetdryvac---tuesday-july-28-2009-195707.html

This came out somewhat less well than I'd initially thought, but it should give you the general idea.