Subject: [Tweeters] Seattle Audubon Owling Trip
Date: Jan 24 15:51:52 2010
From: J. Acker - owler at sounddsl.com


I took the first group out owling this morning from my class on Washington
Owls through Seattle Audubon. Instead of meeting them as they came off the
0210 ferry from Seattle as I normally do, I had them meet me at my Northern
Saw-whet Owl banding station at the south end of the Island. Due to a
second pair of overly rambunctious raccoons, I opted to do the net check
just minutes before the group arrived, and found a NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL in
the net. This bird was a recapture - I had originally banded the bird on
October 21, so it was good information on how long this bird has been in the
area. It had also put on a few grams since then. This was not the first
owl of the night for them, because as they emerged from their cars, they
were greeted by a calling GREAT HORNED OWL. This is the same presumed young
female that I detected for the Seattle CBC. The bird has a distinctive and
unusual call. Instead of being the five note mnemonic "Who's awake?, me,
too", this bird drops the last note entirely from its call. Prior to the
group arriving, as I was setting up the nets, I had a distant BARRED OWL
call twice.

We tried at seven different locations for a BARN OWL, without success. We
did have many vocalizations from NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWLS at two other
locations, including one bird that made at least two passes less than two
feet over our heads. We also had a short game of chase in the forest as we
tried to track down a tooting male. We never did get a look at the bird.
Our last birds on Bainbridge were BARRED OWLS. The first was a reliable
female that flew in for a handout when we pulled up, and offered the group a
short photo op. The second BARRED OWL was at the north end of the Island
and flew in silent in response to my calls for a saw-whet.

Getting near sunrise, we opted to go off Island to try for a NORTHEN PYGMY
OWL, but were unsuccessful. Our last dash was to Silverdale to see the
SHORT-EARED OWL, which some of the group got to see a fleeting 3 second look
at as it ducked out behind a hedgerow.



In addition to the owls (4 NORTHERN SAW-WHET, 2 BARRED, 1 GREAT HORNED, and
1 SHORT-EARED), there were three deer and four raccoons.



J. Acker

Bainbridge Island, WA

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