Dave Nutter's comment about the Eastern Screech-owl reminded me that I had made a futile attempt a couple weeks back to 'see' one in the woods behind my house. He (or she) was tootling, probably around 9pm, very close by in the trees. It was clear, so I hoped for a silhouette, but no such luck. The owl stopped tootling as soon as it detected me, so I never located it, but was pleased to think I had been at least within 30 or so feet of it for a change. Many times, they've either tootled or screeched in the middle of the night, either while I was out with the telescope or sleeping with the window open, and being a light sleeper, often awakened by them. I've recorded them several times, but never a glimpse or overflight.
But last night, I finally got my first visual! He started tootling while there was still about 10 min of light. I heard it through the open living room window, dashed for the binocs, and moved fast across the lawn, then went into 'deer stalking' mode, 2 or 3 slow steps, pause, repeat til I was 20' into the woods, then started scanning the mid-upper story where the sound was. Again, he spotted and/or heard me and shut up, but I crept forward a few more feet, scanned again, and BINGO, got the puffy little guy sitting on a bare, rather steeply inclined branch about 25' up. As this tree was downslope, he was probably about 15' higher than me. He immediately turned sideways to me and horripilated which made him look the size of a small Great Horned. Much bigger than I had anticipated. He stayed silent, so I tried a warbling whistle. Bad idea: he took off like a SHOT. I mean shot from guns: didn't even see a wing-flap and he shot out of view. So don't whistle. For the record, this sighting was 100' south of Asbury Road and about 200' east of Triphammer Rd (i.e., my back woods). _________________________________________________ Chris Pelkie - 607-254-1108 - [email protected] Research Analyst - Bioacoustics Research Program Cornell Lab of Ornithology 159 Sapsucker Woods Road Ithaca, NY 14850 -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
