Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2002 01:28:51 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Denise Ryan Subject: Owl Student Trip For those concerned that Leon Nawojchik might lead his students astray, I am happy to report that the trip went well and that we only ventured on to public lands in our search for owls. 4 owls for the day - very productive! We searched in Fairfax County at two county parks. One very urban park turned up one Barred Owl in a conspicuous large hollow in a large tree. The owl was at eye level and awake about 100 ft. from the public trail. We all got incredible looks through binoculars and scopes. We got to see head movement, talon Unfortunately, we attracked some attention - 10 pairs of binoculars all pointed the same way is going to attract attention. A very silly woman and her grandson stopped by to see what we were doing. One of the students informed her we were looking at owls and she proceeded to march toward the owl. We quickly pulled her back and then she insisted on signing a silly song to the owl because it makes her feel good. Arrrg! It provided a good lesson in being discrete for all of us. I think I'll say we are surveying for flying squirrels next time. We then headed out to a more rural county park and checked for a Northern Saw-Whet that Leon had scouted earlier in the week. We went to the tree where he had found it earlier with no luck. He then taught us how to look for droppings and pellets and we all scattered around the area to search. I am pleased to say that I hit the jackpot when I found three moist pellets under a Red Cedar tree. There only three feet below and extremely dense crown was our Saw-Whet. Leon did a good job teaching us to stay together so we did not encircle the tree. The owl remained almost motioness and we just saw his belly. We then found another viewing spot in the dense growth of trees where we could see the facial disks and eyes. After a while the Saw-Whet went back to sleep -- or at least shut his eyes. So, I guess we didn't stress him too much. We next went in search of Great Horned Owls in the bigger trees, but we had no luck. However, we did hear the call of a Barred owl. Leon answered the Barred, but we got no answer back. It was starting to get dark, so we needed to move on. Our last stop was a private residence in Vienna where a Barred owl is a regular at this particular home. The residents are involved with raptor rehab and have a captive blind Barred Owl. In addition, there is a "wild" Barred owl that comes by every night and grabs frozen mice hand-outs from the deck. That Barred owl had to wait for the class to arrive. We all filed in to our very gracious host's dark kitchen to watch from behind the picture windows overlooking the deck and wooded yard. The owl sitting on a branch near the deck. The silouhette of the owl was clear and he called to the female blind owl in an enclosure in the backyard. In fact, they have a regular conversation every night. Our hostess threw some frozen mice out on the deck and the owl swooped in to pick them up one by one. He gave us a great show for 45 minutes and even came in an sat within 20 feet of the house on the bird feeded. Apparently the seed that falls on the ground also attract mice and rats that provide the resident with regular wild meals. All in all a great day. We take another field trip next week. Denise Ryan Washington, DC denise_ryan@lcv.org ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================