Annual owl survey last night (Nova Scotia) (2 Viewers)

After weeks of windy evenings and being busy with other activities I finally got around around to doing my owl survey route yesterday evening, aided and abetted by the good company and excellent ears of 2 birding friends.
the route goes 14.8Km down a remote woods dirt road, from Falmouth to Benjamin Mills, Hants. Co., and involves stopping every 1.6km. and playing a standardized recording for 10 minutes at each stop. What an amazing night, with temp of +18C at the beginning, falling to +15C at the end - a far cry from the usual hovering around zero. Also a great night for stargazing and plane-watching, as it was a cloudless and moonless sky. At one stop we had 2 pairs of Barred Owls on opposite sides of the road, responding to the Barred Owl part of the tape, and sounding very like the pair on the tape. At the last 2 stops we had 3 Saw-Whets, including one that was so close that we were right beside the tree from which it was calling - continuously from as soon as we stopped, to when we left - but it was a dense fir, and we couldn't actually see the bird.

The owl locations and count are similar to the last few years, but we missed the Gt. Horned at the last stop this time around. We also had 2 Woodcock and 1 Snipe, many Robins before it got too dark, and some deafening Peepers, Toads, and many small moths. Got home around 12:30 this morning. Richard

Is it not too late for some of the owls? Our Eagle Owls start in December/January and come May are silent - they have chicks by now!

The Tengmalm's is about the same.

Great to get out and get them though- shame about Great Horned - maybe they are on chicks.

I did owl surveys for a number of years and really enjoyed it. You never knew what you would hear or see during the survey. I started with two routes, dropped to one and finally circumstances caused me to give up my route.
Keep up the good work!

Hi Rosbifs,

You are correct. However the survey that I do has a set protocol, with specific dates, stops etc. So there are some owls that occur off the survey route that will be missed. But the year to year data comparisons are useful. Our Gt. Horned (Eagle owl equivalents) also nest early, and indeed there is a nest close to my home that now has 2 large fluffy chicks. Barred Owls (Ural owl equiv.) are the most common owl in NS, and are nesting now, and still calling. Boreal owls (Tengmalm equiv.) apparently stop calling as soon as a pair bond is established - usually early April, and anywhere they're very rare in NS. Northern Saw-whet owl is largely a passage migrant, but a few breed, and re also still calling.

Snowyowl - I agree with you, there's something special about being in the woods on a still starry night and listening for owls.

Richard

Owls are great, nice one. Ironically, in a different Falmouth, we found 2 Tawny Owl chicks yesterday afternoon - cute.