Dear Tweets,

I know a fair amount about barred owls having lived in New Hampshire for
nine years where they were locals. In New Hampshire, we occasionally saw
them during the day hunched in a tree - but only on days which were very
grey, very cold, and usually with snow coming down.

Last night, the owls that frequent my ravine were calling ca 5:30 p.m. when
I was bringing my goose in for the night; not dark yet. This afternoon, I
went out to chop some kindling at 4:15 p.m. and they started calling! It
was quite sunny, even. It's not someone playing a tape because they do
move around and it seems like there are two calling at times. Two of them
were seen in my yard last year just at dusk, and once, again last year, one
of them was perched on the screech owl box (used by squirrels) for quite
some time in mid-morning.

I think I mentioned earlier in response to someone that *my* owls tended to
call around 9 p.m. or, at least, before midnight. Is this a strange
northwest phenomenon for barred owls to be calling in late afternoon while
it's sunny? Or??? Do others hear them during the day? Maybe Bothell owls
are just weird.

Diann MacRae
Bothell, Washington
tvulture at halcyon.com