Owl box: Birding blog

Searching for the elusive Saw whet owl

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 19:12:00 PST

Took a quick run to PA this morning to see if I could find a Long eared owl or a Saw whet. I have been striking out on Saw whet the last few years and I was hoping that my luck would change. The weather was very cooperative and it was pretty toasty by 7 am. Although I spent an hour knocking on the usual doors I struck out on both Long eared and Saw whet. This is the first time I've been out to this spot in November and I am hoping that my luck will change later in winter.

I was lucky enough to see a Screech owl popping its head out of a 'Wood duck box'. I had to chuckle to myself considering that I am the only person in the world who can't attract a Screech owl pair to my owl box. To add salt to the wounds my blog is named after the aforementioned vacant owl box. I had to wonder if I'd get a tenant if I started calling it a Wood duck box. To be consistent I will also need to change the name of the Blog to the Wood duck box.... doesn't have the same ring does it. How about Wood duck owl box blogspot - shoewee what a mouth full ;-)

Anyway here is a photo of the Screech owl that was mocking me with his/her cuteness. This is the first photo that I've taken with my 300mm lens and the 1.4 extender. I'm pretty impressed with the results, especially give that I had to manual focus it. I also found a very cooperative Great Blue Heron.

Funny Commercial - Aaron Rodgers

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 07:31:00 PST

Barn owls help wine drinkers!

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:57:00 PST

Next time you drink a glass of California Chardonnay say a silent thank you to the Barn owls. Farmers in California are starting to use Barn Owls to control the rampant gopher population. Farmers use owls to kill gophers.

Barn owls are gopher eating machines:
In warm weather they'll eat two rodents per night and in cold weather that increases to three or four per night. Once we have babies in the nest that increases to one per night when the chicks are just hatched and up to six per night when the young are about ready to fledge!
Barn owls are ideal for land managment as human interaction does not seem to bother them. This is not withstanding their highly developed sense of hearing - they can actually hear gophers chewing on roots under the ground. Additionally, Barn owls aren't territorial and unlike other raptors they don't spend the bulk of their time chasing competitors away.

I would encourage anyone who has heard a Barn owl in their area or who has suitable habitat to put up a Barn owl box.

Here are a couple of sites that may be useful:
Nesting box - Barn owl box company
Biology - http://owling.com/Barn_nh.htm
Box placement and maintenance - http://www.wildlife-center.org/where%20and%20how%20to%20hang%20a%20nesting%20box.htm

The human side of blogging

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:01:00 PST

One of my blog features that I love the most is when readers stop by and introduce themselves. I've actually had the opportunity to meet a few of these people in 'real' life, but even in the cases where I haven't, it's nice to know a little more about the people that stop by my blog.

If you haven't done so please introduce yourself by clicking here.

Itching to find a 'winter owl'

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:33:00 PST

As I typed the heading I realized that the title of this post is incorrect as I have already bagged a Snowy owl, which clearly qualifies as a 'winter owl'. The Snowy I tracked down a couple of weeks ago was actually my first Snowy in NJ. So what other winter owls are out there. On the list is Saw whet, Long eared and Short eared owl. I have struck out on Saw whet for several years now and this year doesn't look very promising based on the slow migration rates in the states around us.

Along with the typical winter owls I am also hoping that a Great horned owl nesting spot will be used this year. Anyway, hoping to do some owling this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend. If I manage to track down an owl it will be earliest winter owl I've managed to track down.

Other reading:
Who's hoo? The owls of New Jersey

Land trust preserves in NJ & PA

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:25:00 PST

If you’re in NJ or PA and looking for some great birding spots make sure to check out the nature preserves managed by the Natural Lands Trust - a non-profit organization that obtains and sustains throughout Southern NJ and Eastern PA. There are two preserves in New Jersey (one in Millville and one in Newport) which are open to the public, free of charge, every day from dawn until dusk. Both of these preserves have been listed as “Important Birding Areas” and there are many birding outlooks on the trails.

For more info on the NJ and PA preserves check out www.natlands.org

http://www.natlands.org/category/preserves-to-visit/blog/

Thanks to Chelsea Mathers for bringing this to my attention!

Eagle owl nesting in a flower pot

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:06:00 PST

Pretty amazing story from my home country and home town.

http://potplantowl.co.za/
http://potplantowl.blogspot.com/

A snowy owl adventure with my favorite birder!

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:25:00 PST

Scanning the NJ listserv on Thursday I noticed that a Snowy Owl had showed up pretty close to home. I emailed a few folks on got some tips on where the owl was being seen. The stars were aligned as my daughter was off from school on Friday. My daughter is 7 years old and she is starting to show some more interest in birding. On Thursday she initiated an impromptu bird walk, so it wasn't too hard to convince her to make the trip out for a rare Snowy owl.

We headed out around 11 am on a BITTERLY cold day that reminded me of the Super Bowl of birding weather - COLD. When we got there I re-read the instructions and realized that the owl was being seen some distance away. We bundled up and make the hike to the other side of the reservoir. We then hiked through the brush (thorny) and scouted the water line. No dice! I looked over to the reservoir wall and saw several birders looking down the wall. We hiked across there and we saw a few folks camping at the bottom of the wall, apparently watching the owl. By this time my side kick was pretty pooped, but I wasn't going to allow us to go home empty handed.

We made the trek down and enjoyed some magnificent views of the Snowy owl! Awesome day with my little girl. Happy veteran's day honey - thanks for making the trip with me!

Eagle owl in flight - amazing video

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:32:00 PDT

Vurtrunner's Channel on YouTube

Brown Pelicans

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 12:51:00 PDT

Took these shots while down in Aruba.

Wildlife in my yard

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:59:00 PDT

My hidden camera had a much more productive night on Friday evening.

New Trophy cam

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 12:14:00 PDT

I recently bought a Trophy cam to see what hides in my yard. So far I've had very little success. I've got some pretty bad photos of a Raccoon running around during a massive rain storm, some crows and this morning I took some photos of the local cat..... I've seen Fox around and I'm hoping to snap a photo of one soon.

Brett Favre - 2020 MVP!

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:10:00 PST

Owls of North America Flickr group hits 100

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:37:00 PST

My Flickr group, Owls of North America has reached a great milestone - 100 members! Please make sure to visit the site to check out the AMAZING photos posted by extremely talented wildlife photographers.

If you have a photo to share please join this Flickr group.

Owls of North America Flickr Group.

.

I & The Bird 116

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:35:00 PST

Andrew Skeoch has created an excellent edition of I & The Bird 116 over at The Listening Earth Blog.

Make sure to check it out!

Merry Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:01:00 PST

Sharing a Christmas Owl

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 11:25:00 PST

Yesterday I took an impromptu trip to do some more owling. I have been very lucky the past couple of years and I’ve managed to find a Long eared owl at Peace Valley in PA. In previous posts I have always left out the place where I find the owls so as to ‘protect’ them from harassment. I’ve been having a raging debate about this with myself since I started this blog because I’m not that sure that people watching owls will necessarily scare them off. In my experience owls are pretty tolerant of people, although extreme cases do occur. A few years back a Northern Hawk Owl was spotted in the Northeast and crowd of people showed up and literally turned the place in a zoo. People were releasing mice that were running into neighborhood houses, they were trampling around in people’s yards etc etc. These are extreme cases and unfortunately many of us still use them as a yardstick when sharing owl locations with others. I personally think it’s silly, yet I still follow that convention for the most part - more on that later.

In the case of Peace Valley I mention the place primarily because it’s very large and the owls are not in an obvious location close to where most birders would look. They are also not easy to find even if you know where to look. So how did I find them you may ask – DUMB luck mixed in with persistence. I simply look for good locations and then I spend several hours walking around scanning the trees and the ground. Unless someone shares an owl location with you (which is very rare) this is the way that most people find owls. Yesterday I headed back to where I found the single owl last year and I struck out. That immediately puts a little bit of doubt in your mind. I tried to scan below the trees but it was hard to see any pellets or whitening as the ground was freshly snow covered. Fast forward a few hours and this is what I came upon.

BINGO – Owl time! I could clearly see the back of the owl, but when I moved around to the front of the tree I couldn’t see it. It always amazes me how consistently this happens. If I had come from the opposite side I wouldn’t have seen this owl. That’s why it’s important to scan all around each tree which makes owling a time consuming effort . After some serious maneuvering and looking STRAIGHT up I managed to locate the owl. It was a Long eared owl and he/she seemed not to have even noticed me. The eyes were shut, it was all puffed up and the ear tufts were down. This owl was clearly ignoring me and catching some zzzzs. I took a few photos and watched the owl through my binocs for some time.

Did I mention that seeing the owl required me to tilt my head back and look DIRECTLY up? Those of you that have done warbler watching know exactly what I’m talking about. At one point I was taking a photo which required manually focusing the camera to enable my lens to shoot through the branches and as I was doing this, I realized that I was looking at the back of another owl - Holy smokes. Ok, so in this case I may have got lucky approaching from two sides although the other two sides wouldn’t have given a view of either owl. Hey, I always say it’s betta to be lucky than good.

Here are some snaps of owl number two. This one was definitely the scout of the couple and it was watching me intently as I moved around. I took a few snaps and then I decided to see what else I could see.

Ok so here’s where my predicament occurs. As I walking out of the evergreen grove I ran into another birder in his late 20's. I immediately thought of the owls and the fact that it was almost Christmas and I was VERY tempted to show him the owls. Instead I said hi and asked him what he was looking for and he mentioned that a rare Thrush (Varied thrush) had been seen in the area. Aha, that explains all the cars in the parking lot. The guy didn’t seem overly friendly and owling convention prevailed and I kept ’my’ owls a secret. I’d love to hear whether you think I did the right thing or whether I was being a smuck. In hindsight I think I should have shown him the owls, much like I would do if I found a perched Bald eagle. What’s the big deal? Surely he wouldn’t have posted the owls’ location on his Facebook page and if he did, how many people would brave the cold winds to see two owls at the top of the tree. What do you think???

Struck out in the owl department

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:08:00 PST

Not be deterred by the prediction of a massive winter storm I headed out early Saturday morning to see if I could track down any owls. I headed up to the Pole farm and encountered snow on the way which was rather surprising. By the time I got to the Pole farm is was snowing and blowing pretty heavily. I started by looking for Short eared owls (SEO) but if there were any, they were tightly tucked in and not braving the inclement weather. I initially thought that this might be too early for SEO but I saw two SEOs at this location last year in early January. Something that I did not realize is that SEO migration is irruptive in nature, so this could very well be a slow year for them.

Anyway, from there I swung by a nice little pond that has several hundred Canada geese and a single snow goose tucked in with the crowds. With snow in my ear and a chilled nose I headed over to my Long eared owl roosting spot to see if I could track them down. Sadly I found no owls, nor did I find any evidence of owls. I searched the evergreens for Saw whet but struck out in this department too.

I decided the snow wasn’t great for birding so I jumped back in my heated car and made for home. The snow cleared out pretty quickly heading North and I decided to stop by a nice field close to home. The field has a small cedar grove on the edge of it and I found pellets there last year in March. After doing my best CSI imitation I struck out again. On the plus side I did manage to scare up a few Winter wrens which were great.

One thing about owling is that persistence generally pays off. The more places you look, the luckier you become – generally. I had another hour to kill so I decided to swing by Round valley reservoir. Last winter I heard some crows harassing something in a pretty large evergreen stand and I decided to check it out. Again, I found nothing although the location is EXCELLENT for owls. Even though I struck out I will definitely go back to this evergreen stand to check it out later in the winter. How was your weekend? Any owls?

Owl hunting

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:21:00 PST

This incredible video details all the special adaptations that owls use to hunt even when they can't see their prey. Boy would I love to see a Great Gray Owl!

Itching to go owling

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:15:00 PST

The last few months have been really busy. My only real time to go birding is on weekends and my wife has been on call, we've had social events etc etc. Anyway, I am really itching to go birding especially to track down an owl or two.

Hopefully I'll have something avian in nature to blog about soon.

Woodpecker fighting a snake

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:11:00 PST

If you want to see something INCREDIBLE head over to my buddy Christopher's Picus blog for a video of a snake fighting a woodpecker. I just realized that I just swopped the two around as my title says the woodpecker was fighting the snake. Well you have a look and tell me who you think was the instigator and who was the winner.

Updated video link (12/14): http://vodpod.com/watch/2564915-liveleak-com-woodpecker-vs-snake-a-fight-over-a-woodpecker-nest

Happy Holloween!

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:08:00 PDT

Long eared owls killed by seeds

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:00:00 PDT

Ok, so maybe the seeds aren't actively killing the Long eared owls (LEOs) as my post title might suggest but they are dying as a result of seeds. I came across a very interesting article in the Bird Watcher’s Digest that details some strange dangers that birds face including slugs attacking warblers, hurricanes impacting chimney swift populations, and high altitude collisions with planes. In the case of the Long eared owls, research by Airam Rodríguez, Felipe Siverio, Rubén Barone, Beneharo Rodríguez and Juan J. Negro shows that LEOs and Barn Owls are prone to getting stuck in adhesive vegetation. The same specialized feathers (barbules) on the upper side of the flight feathers that give owls feathers a velvety look also make them prime candidates for getting caught in sticky seed producing plants such as burr bristle grass. Their research in the Canary Islands showed that nearly 5% of Leos and 2% of Barn owls that were admitted to local rehab centers in Tenerife had been entangled in bristle grass. Amazingly nearly 20% of those owls died from the incident.

If you don't get Bird Watcher's Digest I would highly recommend it. Each month there are several interesting articles in there by birding legends such as Bill Thompson, Julie Zickefoose and more.

Wordless Wed - Hermit thrush

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:21:00 PDT

Busy brown creeper

noreply@blogger.com (Owlman) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:08:00 PDT

Had little Brown Creeper running around in my pine trees. I spent a good hour working on gettting a decent shot but failed pretty miserable.... However, the photos do give you a sense of the busy nature of this incredible little bird.