Dear Tweeters,

I would say that the best owling equipment consists
of a good pair of ears. The second most important item
is a set of clothes and shoes that make as little
noise
as possible. That goes for the clothes and shoes of
the other people in the group, too.

Most of the time, I just walk slowly and silently at
night, and every few seconds I imitate the owls' calls
with whistles or vocal hoots. I have not noticed much
difference between recordings and man-made sounds, at
least not for most the owl species around here. By
making the sounds myself, I don't have to deal with as
much equipment. This method has the same feel as
trolling for fish, with the same slow-moving rhythm,
the same long periods with no luck, and the same
exhiliration of a "strike" when an owl answers.

I always start with the smaller species and work my
way up, on the theory that the call of a big owl might
scare off one of the little species.

I must admit that I do use a flashlight if the owl I
am looking for would be a life bird, since I don't
tick lifers sans look-see. The light I use is just a
regular camping flashlight, the kind with the big,
rectangular-prism shaped battery with two poles on the
top. I try not to turn the thing on very often,
though.


Personally, I find the idea of piercing the darkness
of the night with powerful lights rather contrary to
the whole aesthetic of birding, or of owling. I might
carry a light, in case I need to make myself visible
to oncoming vehicles on a dark road at night. I might
use it to look at things once in a while, but I don't
often go around shining lights into the trees. I
prefer to sneak around in the darkness, try to make as
little noise as possible, and just try to hear one of
these
wonderful birds.






Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com




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