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Re: owls

From:

Sherry

Reply-To:

Sherry

Date:

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:43:49 -0400

I was at the Middle Patuxent Environmental Area (in Howard) with a 
friend on August 18, and we also heard owls.

Down by the river around 4:30 pm we heard a Barred Owl calling. After a 
few minutes of solitary calls from a male, we heard a higher-pitched 
female call -- simultaneously, just slightly delayed. The lower-pitched 
call would start, and after about about three "notes" the higher-pitched 
call would chime in. All were classic "who cooks for you? who cooks for 
you-all?" calls, so we'd hear the end of the higher-pitched call after 
the lower-pitched call had ended. They did that several more times 
before ending.

About an hour later in the upland area we heard a male Great Horned Owl 
calling in the distance off to the west. He was answered by another male 
Great Horned closer and east of us. After some territorial discussion 
between the males, the easterly owl was answered by a nearby female. All 
three owls continued calling. There was a trail heading down the hill to 
the east so we followed it toward the pair. The westerly male's calls 
faded out as we moved away, but we never did hear an answer from a 
female in that area. We got fairly close to the pair of owls in the 
east; they were calling back and forth continuously for about 15 minutes.

We were also very puzzled by hearing owls duetting at this time of year.

Sherry




Hank Dahlstrom wrote:
> While paddling in the marsh near Taylor's Island this weekend, I heard a very deep Who-who-who shortly before sunset.  Then the next morning I was serenaded by owls from about 6:00 to 6:15 am.  There were three or four, two fairly close, one or two much further away.  The loudest would call Who-who who who, and the next loudest would answer, who-who-who who who in a somewhat higher tone.  It was an amazing and wonderful way to wake up!  I wonder about the calls--they did not have that slurry ending of a barred owl's "Who cooks for you"--could they have been Great Horned Owls?  And why are they calling now--I thought they were mostly vocal during mating season?  and why that morning and not the three other days when I was there?
>
> Any info about this would be most interesting---thanks,
> ---Hank D.
>
> 
>
>
>