> >Any comments out there on relationship of big and small owls in the same
> >location?
> >
> >Russell Rogers

Dennis Paulson:
> I have a couple of times attracted western screech-owls by whistling their
> calls, then, after they were nearby and responding vigorously, would shut
> them up instantly by giving a single great horned owl hoot. I have to add
> that on other occasions the horned owl call had no effect. Did your
> screech-owls shut up when the barred appeared?

I, too, have been "buzzed" by Barred Owls when whistling for smaller owls.
I was whistling for a Saw-whet on a logging road in my neighborhood in
Massachusetts, when I saw a big silouhette coming down the road towards
me. It definitely looked like the Barred was bent on lunch! And, while I
had been finding a saw-whet in that area for the previous few weeks, I
never heard one there after that. Coincidence, perhaps. I have heard
from a reliable source (&*#$ my neurons, I can't remember the name -
Connecticut birder who has led Attu trips for the last decade or so) that,
while leading an "Owl Prowl" for his students, he once had a Long-eared Owl
in a flashlight beam get picked off by a Great Horned Owl.

Tops on my list of not-yet-accomplished bird studies is to try to document
just what effect a calling large owl has on how vocal small owls are.
Anecdotal evidence, as Dennis neatly points out, goes both ways. I've
certainly had both Screech (Eastern, in this case) and Great Horned
responding at the same time from the same patch of trees. I've also
called in a Saw-whet during a Christmas Count, then switched to hooting
for Great Horned, only to have the Saw-whet reappear and start tooting
from an exposed branch only twenty feet away. On the other hand, some
people swear that when a Great Horned starts calling, the smaller owls
shut up. A good controlled playback study might tell us which is the
predominant effect.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu