Hi Folks!

Many of you woulkd probably like to find a Northern Saw-whet Owl of your own.  This is a regularly occuring species in all of Maryland in winter, but some years in lower abundance than others.  This winter, based upon local Saw-whet banding stations, is above  average.  Finding them is another matter....

You can of course spend many hours looking through groves of red cedars, small pines, honeysuckle tangles, etc. or you can start by narrowing the serach to an area where you know there is at least one Saw-whet.  This is not as difficult as it seems.  On January 1, 2005 I located two Saw-whets in Howard County several miles from one another and in quite different habitats.  Both are on public land and both are in areas where hunting is prohibited.

The first was in the pine grove on the east side of Rt. 97 about .75 miles north of the Howard/Montgomery line.  The pine grove is approvimately 9  acres and all of the trees are quite tall [40-50 feet] with the only pine greenery near the tops.  At 4:30 AM a Saw-whet responded to my whistling of the "toot" call .... this is the advertizing call on most tapes.... a long series of "whet-whet-whet-whet-whet-....".  In the half-hour I was there, a single bird responded five times, each time with the "scream" call followed by a long period of silence.

The "scream" response by a Saw-whet is quite un-owllike.  Think of the scream of an alley cat.  If anyone has a web-site with this call, please post it.  Other noises include a "twitter" and bill-clacking.

The other location was on the south side of Annapolis Rock   Road in an extensive stand of young pines.  This was at about 6:30 PM after all of the sparrows had gone to sleep. The single bird responded with a two "scream", a "twitter" , and bill-clacking.

After you have discovered a Saw-whet in the dark, your day-time search can be focused.

Good Birding!

Jim 

Jim Stasz
North Beach MD