Flammulated Owl Adventure

Ah, a few minutes to blog at the Salt Lake City Airport.

One of the best parts of an American Birding Association Convention are the sub parties. There are field trips, but there are people who may have missed birds or need birds that are not part of the offered field trips, so people come together and form little posses to get target birds. A target bird for me (and several others) that was not offered on any of the trips was flammulated owl--a tiny dark eyed owl that would make screech owls look big. They are in the mountains and are best found at night. I can understand why the ABA may not want to risk a night time mountain hike...but that doesn't stop some of us from doing it on our own time.

The guys working the Leica booth went out and scouted it the night before. Jeff Bouton came back the next day with dizzying tales of how close this hard to see owl was--it could be digiscoped! Another posse was assembled. Now, here's the kicker to this story. We were driving out to see an owl after dark and may of use had field trips meeting the next morning at 3:45 am or 4:00 am. But, this is a once in a lifetime bird for many of us, so off we went.

We loaded up three vehicles (thanks, Barb, from Borderland Tours for letting me ride with you), drove to the mountain the canyon that was about 45 minutes away, then up we went--we had to cover five switch backs and for those of us not used to that altitude, it was strenuous.

We made it up there and I found myself surrounded by good friends and soon hooting flammulated owls. There were at least four surrounding us in the dark. Soon, one came in, we shined the flashlight and viola:

Isn't it cool! Now Jeff would like to clarify:

"The autofocus picked up the stick above and in front of the bird (it is perfectly focused). Too bad, I had one shot though and it is at least a documentation shot. If I’d gotten one more shot off I would have nailed him! maybe next time…"

He doesn't need to apologize, it's an INCREDIBLE shot considering he was digiscoping on the side of the mountain in the dark with only a flashlight to show the owl. It's a cool, cool shot. When I saw the owl I shouted, "Holy Crap!" and a sixteen year old birder named Erick said, "Holy Crap is right!"

We both got lifers. Flammulated owls are birds of mountain pine forests and eat almost entirely insects (although a few tiny mammals and birds are possible). They are a unique small owl because they have brown eyes (like a barred owl) so that makes them look freaky and according to Cornell's BNA the "specialized syringeal anatomy in these small birds (males < 60 g) produces hoarse, low-frequency notes sounding like those of much larger owls." It's true, they have a bass voice.

What a trip life is! Going up a mountain, in the dark, on trails that have a steep enough drop off that one mis-step could garner you an injured limb, being surrounded by tiny, tiny owls hooting, not hearing any human traffic (apart from the group), a distant breeze, the mountain air, fragrant wildflowers, and great old and new friends.

I love birding. Although, I did not love only getting three hours of sleep before meeting my field trip. But hey, flammulated owls are worth it.

I must get to my gate, I am so looking forward to some sleep tonight. Hope their are not too many typos in this...

Owls Near My Home

I'm trying hard to focus on the good. I'm incredibly swamped--I still have a post left from the World Series of Birding but there are articles to finish, emails to deal with, trips to lead, blogs to write, etc. I had every intent to just do my time banding at Carpenter this morning and then come home and write, write, write.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Someone reported a long-eared owl in a park a few blocks from our apartment. Even though the bird was seen this morning and I was reading the report in the afternoon, the owl was roosting in a heavily trafficked park. It had made an informed decision to roost in a city park--it would not flush easily and still be there. As soon as I got to the park with my digiscoping equipment, you could hear the angry robins...oh yes, the long-eared was still there.

Tucked and well hidden in the trees, the long-eared owl tried very hard to roost and the robins were making darn sure that sleep would not be an easy one this day. A few other birders were there and we all stayed back on the trail to watch the long-eared. Some people passing through the trail asked if we were looking at another great horned owl and we showed them the long-eared. They were excited and said that just down the trail was a very visible great horned. I went to take a look a few hundred feet down the trail.

Another birder named Scott was with me and he spotted the sleeping great horned owl right away. Do you see it in the above photo?

Scott also found a second great horned roosting nearby!

Again, these are urban great horneds and they must be very used to people to roost right out in the open. I love having an unexpected two species of owl day just a few blocks from home! It was interesting to note that it was relatively silent compared to over by the long-eared owl. There were several warblers and a few buntings and orioles singing a storm, but they were just territory songs, not alarm songs. Small birds are not high in the list of preferred prey items to a great horned owl. Long-eared owls do eat some small birds and I'm sure the robins are aware of it. It was interesting to note the long-eared roosting so close to the great horned owls...great horneds are known to eat smaller owls, including long-eareds. Hmmm.

And if you are curious about about what angry robins sound like, I did manage to take a small video of the roosting long-eared through my spotting scope. You can hear the angry "cheep cheeps" from the robins. Another interesting note is that this is general robin alarm. When they see a Cooper's hawk in the neighborhood, the robins give a very high pitched down slurred whistle. They did not give that while I was there observing the long-eared:

Non Restricted Heron Rookery

People were talking about Coon Rapids Dam on the Minnesota birding listservs. The great blue herons were returning to the rookery and there was a great horned owl using one of the nests. From my understanding, the owl has been there for the last few years--there's a plethora of nests for it to choose from but I've never made it over to see it. So I took a few minutes to go check out the rookery.

Some of the great blue herons were actively building nests, others were kind fluffed out as if they were too cold to want to deal with it. I couldn't tell right away which nest had the great horned owl. I followed the directions to try and see the fourth one from the right and all I saw were herons.

I systematically checked each nest. Heron...heron...heron...heron...oh hey:

You're not a heron! That's a little red-tailed hawk head! And the great blue herons don't seem to care. Granted, red-tails are a mighty hunter, but adult heron probably isn't high on their prey list. Young herons would be a possibility...but I wonder if red-tails do not like the fishy taste? The red-tail would have been in that nest before the herons arrived, so the herons are choosing to nest there despite the hawk. I wonder if the hawk has nested there before? I wonder if the hawk built its own nest or just refurbished an old heron nest?

I found some birders nearby and asked if they knew which nest had the great horned owl and they pointed to a cluster of heron nests away from the active clump that had no herons on them whatsoever. There in the center was a great horned owl. This cluster of nests was further back and I found it interesting that the herons nested next to the red-tail seemingly without any problems but gave plenty of space to the great horned--the owl would go for adult and young herons. I remember when I went to a rookery a few years ago and we found the night-heron remains with a big fat owl pellet in the middle. I wondered too if the early returning herons get the better nest spot farther away from the owls and if the later ones would be forced to take a nest next to the great horneds? Either way, the other active nests are in easy view of the great horns and I'm sure the owls will take a few nestlings from them. The red-tail is in easy view of the great horned...I wonder how that territory negotiation is going? The owl would have started nesting in January, the red-tail in early March, and now the herons. I wish I had more time to spend and watch the negotiations.

I also noted that almost every wire stabilizer had a staring next to it singing territory song. The holes that the wires go through are wide enough to easily fit a starling and the area on the inside must make a snug nest. Such enterprising birds.

Making Progress With Mr. Neil's Barred Owl

Mr. Neil has a few owl species on his property. There is a resident barred owl who occasionally duets with a second bird. This bird has been the cagiest of barred owls that I have ever encountered. Most of the time when I walk through the woods where it roosts, it takes off even if I'm far away. A few weeks ago, I found it just across the creek and for once it didn't move. However, I think it was forced to stay in one spot because a few trees away was a roosting great horned owl and if the great horned found the barred owl, it would have been an ugly fight. You can read about that here.

I figured that the barred owl had finally decided to stay across the creek and went walking through the pines where it normally roosts. While exploring the pines and checking out a large stick nest, I had that feeling I was being watched. I turned to my left and there was the barred owl roosting. This was the closest it had ever allowed me to come. Typically, it would have flown off. I didn't have my scope and snapped the above photo with just my camera. I looked behind me and noticed up on the hill was Mr. Neil's writing gazebo. It has a deck and I thought that if I went there, I could get a better view of the barred owl--maybe even be eye level with it. I took note of the base of the tree that the barred owl was roosting on and went back the way I came on the trail and took the long way back to the yard and gazebo so as not to get any closer.

I set the scope on the deck of the gazebo and aimed it towards the owl. Can you see it? It's right there in the tangle of trees. Don't worry, I can't see it either. Here it is through the scope:

There it is roosting in the pines. It stayed all day and later, at around 4pm while I was digiscoping the robins and waxwings, I could hear it call from the pines. This is excellent progress--I think the owl is finally learning that the people who come through that part of the woods for the most part ignore it or just watch it a bit from time to time and leave it alone. Incidentally, this is the same deck and gazebo where I recorded the pair of barred owls hooting a duet.

Bees & Owls

When you're sick as a dog, your friends will blog. Mr. Neil did the beekeeping entry this week! When we learned that the Kitty hive had died, we decided to keep her honey for ourselves rather than give it to Olga (on the off chance Kitty died from some bee disease). So, this week Mr. Neil undertook that monumental task of extracting Kitty honey. He used the simple (and sticky) cheesecloth method.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to catch up on all the work I missed last week. Ugh. Tomorrow, I plan on going out and birding the crap out of Sunday. Perhaps, take my Fuji out for one last hurrah before my new digiscoping camera arrives. Today, I stepped out for an hour to peak at a great horned owl nest that Ecobirder has blogged about. It's a busy intersection in the south metro, across from a strip mall. The owls are remarkably obvious when you drive by.

There are two owls in the above photo. Can you spot them? If you can't see them, check out the photo below:

The female was on the nest and the male was hanging out towards the center of the tree. Normally, the males are well hidden, but I'm not gonna argue a good look at a great horned owl. If he doesn't want to behave the way books say he's supposed to behave, who am I to tell him what to do?

You could see the female on the nest through the scope, but it was pretty much a vent side (aka butt side) view of her.

The male was much easier to see and a welcome treat for sore eyes that had been holed up indoors for the past week.

Owl Sunday

Enjoying the warm up in temperature, I used today to play with some of my new tech gadgets. The more I'm getting used to my Remembird, the more I am loving it. It's a digital recorder that attaches to your binoculars and you can use it to make field notes without moving your binoculars from your face. You can either listen to your notes with the provided ear piece or load them onto your computer. So, as you're watching the bird in question you can whisper all the details that you are noticing. Remembird also has a setting for recording bird calls, and I'm anxious to give that a test run when warblers come back. Right now, it's nice now to have the time to get used to pressing the right buttons.

With the sub zero temperatures, the creek at Mr. Neil's place is completely frozen. We decided to cross it explore the area on the other side. I really wanted to check it out, that's where I've heard great horned owls hooting and this morning, crows were mobbing something in the pines.

There were all kinds of tracks along the frozen creek. Above are some turkey tracks, and you can see where the bird slipped a bit on the ice, complete with a wing print. Animals like to use this to move around--it's easier than going over the deep snow. When we got across the creek and up the hill with the pines, I started exploring. A great horned owl was flying around the area. It didn't appear to be flushed by me. I was a distance away and had already passed it and wouldn't have known it was there if it hadn't flown. It went from tree to tree, almost as if it were looking for something. Eventually, it paused on top of some trees and then hopped quite awkwardly into the top of one of the pines.

It was tucked in here and I could barely make out the owl's shape from where I was standing. A flock of crows flew over and one crow dropped to mob the great horned. The rest of the flock was about 10 yards behind me. Since the flock was concentrated there, I wondered if the crows had found the nest? I made an arrow in the snow to remind myself where to stand if I came back to look for this owl and when towards the louder mobbing.

I came around to the rest of the crows and couldn't find anything that looked like a nest. The other crow off by the great horned, increased the urgency in its calls and the rest of the flock joined it. I continued my search and then found the second owl, but was incredibly surprised. It wasn't a great horned owl:

It was a barred owl! I have never seen a wild barred owl so close to a wild great horned owl before. Usually the barred owls at Neil's are very people wary. Once you make eye contact with them, they bolt. Most of the time I unknowningly flush them even from a good distance. This bird stayed put. I think this bird realized that this was great horned owl territory and was laying low to avoid being caught in the territory of "the tiger of the woods." I now wonder if the reason the great horned owl was flying the territory when I arrived knew this owl was here and was on patrol for it.

I left the barred owl alone and went back to look for my arrow. The crows were gone and I placed my tripod in position and just started scanning the tree.

Eventually, I relocated the great horned owl. The bird waited for th crows to leave, walked out towards the edge of the branch, searched around the area and then few in the direction of the barred owl. I couldn't find it and didn't stick around too much longer after that. I figured those two had enough to sort out without having a human underfoot.

So Much For "Sensitive" Owls

Not too long ago we had a whole kurfluffle on the Minnesota birding listservs when a long-eared owl was reported. The emails inevitably spiraled into the "someone got too close to the owl and flushed it causing it severe stress and ruining it for the rest of the birders." However, this story about long-eared owls found roosting in Chicago makes you wonder just how sensitive these birds are. Be sure to check out the photo gallery.

Blast From The Past

I was barely home yesterday. I had my shift at The Raptor Center, then a dental appointment, I was in dire need of new snow boots and had to pick those up and then it was back to TRC for a Holiday Party--I barely had time to check email. But everywhere I went, people kept telling me they saw me on TV and asking if the great gray owls were irrupting again (No they are not like they did in the winter of 2004 - 2005). Apparently WCCO reran the story and you can read it and view it here. According to the story... I still work at the Wild Bird Store.

On January 25, 2005, my buddy Amber and I had one heck of a day, we started it at KARE 11 (where we got to meet Donny Osmond) and then headed up north, met up with a news crew from WCCO to film great grays and before the day was done, we ended up with a car full of four injured owls that people had found that we took back with us to the Twin Cities to The Raptor Center (two great grays, one barred owl, and one great horned owl). We have it on the Birdchick Adventure Pages.

Some Screech Owls And Geeking Out

Tuesday was much busier than I anticipated at The Raptor Center. The rest of my crew was off, there were no programs scheduled and it was pouring rain so the possibilities of walk-in tours was pretty darned remote. But that didn't mean the staff couldn't find things for me to do. In less than four hours I worked with a merlin, a kestrel, a peregrine and two screech owls.

The screeches needed some re-training to the glove. The above gray phase screech owl has been going through a rough molt and was practically bald all summer and didn't do as many programs. When I put my hand in a crate to get him out, he jumped onto my finger and just tried to squeeze the life out of it, apparently my finger had to die. But he will go through retraining and relearn that the gloved hand is a good place where screech owls get food, and have a relaxing time.

The gray phase lives in the same mew as a red phase screech owl. What's interesting about these too, is that when they are perched in their mew, the red phase is usually sitting in front of red bricks and the gray is perched in front of some weathered wood, working their camo feather colors.

I don't know if you noticed, but this bird was facing my camera but was not quite seeing it. It has some eye problems and can't see well. My camera makes a slight sound when it's focusing and the screech owl could hear it, but not quite focus on it.

The gray phase could totally focus on it.

Well, I haven't had a good old fashioned geek out in awhile, but had it last night. Scott Weidensaul is in town for Minnesota Audubon and I was invited to attend. I have to say, Scott is one of my all time favorite bird authors (Living on the Wind is one of the best books ever) and he is a really nice guy who will sign a book in just about any way you'd like him to. A few years ago, I found his phone number on the Internet and called and asked if he would autograph a book in a very unique way for my buddy Amber (at the time we called ourselves "the baddest b!tches of birding" and he did). So, I got to introduce him to Amber last night.

I was nervous because the last and only time I met him face to face was VERY early on the blog, I met him at an ABA Convention in Southeast, AZ in 2005. He was supposed to be there and then his name was crossed off the list so I didn't think I'd get to meet him. It was my last night there and I was having some drinks with some optics reps and new friends and was very much "in my happy place". Then, he walked into the hotel lobby and I suddenly realized I had to pull it together, not sound like a stalker and if I could muster it, sound kinda intelligent. At the time, I thought it was the Algonquin Round Table, but the next morning had a fear that I sounded more like John Goodman in The Big Lebowski ("You wanna toe, I can get you a toe, I can get you a toe by two o'clock!"). Anyway, he remembered, gave me a hug, said I didn't act like a slobbering junk, and even took a look at the Disapproving Rabbits book (and liked it).

The program was a special event for donors and highly active Audubon Members. I've donated some photos to some Audubon publications, so that's how I got my invite. I was honored just to be part of the crowd, it was a who's who of the Minnesota birding community. Above is the oh so tall humorist Al Batt, Val Cunningham, Jim Williams, and Laura Erickson just to name a few.

I get to see bird speakers all the time and have a good handle on who is worth seeing once and who is worth seeing two or three times, who is worth seeing after a few shots of scotch, and who you should feign illness for, but Scott Weidensaul is worth seeing multiple times. I feel like I do quite a bit for birds, but he is one of the few who gets so passionate about birds when he talks about them, that I feel like, "Crap! I'm not doing enough, I need to leave right now and help Red Knots." Very effective speaker, and if you're reading my blog, live in Minnesota and thinking, "Bummer, wish I could have been there." Do not fear. Scott is the keynote speaker at the Detroit Lakes in 2008. Plan on going now, it will be well worth it. If you're in another state and are looking for a good speaker, book him, he's worth every penny.