Subject: Barred Owl brouhaha
Date: Dec 11 08:10:47 2003
From: Netta Smith - nettasmith at comcast.net
Hello, tweeters.
I was awakened at 4:30 this morning by something screaming in the backyard.
After I realized it wasn't a person calling for help, I decided it was a
raccoon, which make some pretty awful noises. But then one of the screams
ended in the characteristic "who cooks for you" of a Barred Owl. The
caterwauling went on for a while, then I opened the window to hear it
better, and that may have scared the bird, as it flew from a small tree
right behind the house, passing about 10 feet from me! It must have gone a
long way, as we never heard it again.
This is the fourth time we've heard the species in 12 years, the others
being Mar 98, Nov 02, and Mar 03; only in the last instance was the bird
heard for more than one night. It seems that Barred Owls disperse during the
winter.
Otherwise the yard has been about as boring as I've ever seen it, although a
Fox Sparrow appeared a few weeks ago, and there are at least three Anna's
Hummingbirds. That's the only species that has clearly increased in our
neighborhood since we moved in here, while numerous others have decreased.
The only other bird species that has been much more in evidence in recent
years is Pileated Woodpecker, but that could be just one or two individuals
that moved into the area. Still, everything I hear about that species
indicates it is adapting to city life. Would that all the other birds could
do the same.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good bird.
Dennis Paulson
--
Netta Smith and Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115