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Subject:

FW: Nightbirding 5/25

From:

Lisa Spears

Reply-To:

Lisa Spears

Date:

Tue, 30 May 2006 22:15:47 -0400

  _____  

From: Lisa Spears [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 9:24 PM
To: 
Subject: Nightbirding 5/25

 

Sorry this is late...last Thursday, a school group was on an overnight field
trip to Camp Pecometh and went nightbirding. We had a CD and speakers that
played nightbird sounds loud so we could use it in the field. This first
time using this technology was earlier in the day and we called up and saw a
pair of Red-eyed Vireos, a female Blue Grosbeak, some cardinals, Indigo
buntings, and much more. Of course we did stop the calls once we may have
aggravated the birds so we would not cause trouble. So that night we used it
to get an Eastern Screech-owl to call, but we didn't expect what was going
to happen next. Immediately something dived at my head and touched me, and
dived at me again and again until something sat on a close tree branch,
about 10 feet from me. Then someone use their flashlight that shined natural
light on the bird and it I was a small, red morph Eastern Screech-owl. Then
watching the owl, another oen came and another and another until there were
4 small owls all around us. By then we turned the calls and flashlight off.
You could hear them calling in high-pitch whinnies. Then we heard 2 more off
in the distance and then it hit us. These were fledgling owls and the
parents were desperately calling to baby's back, but the owls thought we
were the parents. So we sat there for 10 minutes and slowly the owls flew
back to the nest. The next day we went back to the same place and saw the
nest, it was in a small cavity in a nearby tree. That was an amazing
experience. 

 

Amanda Spears,

Queen Anne's County