Hi Sherry, Hank, and others,
Many birds are fooled into thinking it is spring around this time of year
as we approach the fall equinox. Bird hormone production and
breeding/migratory behaviors are strongly affected by the cercadian rhythm
and the identical positioning of the sun and day lengths in late March and
late September.
They are pretty much ruled by instinct and seem oblivious to the fact that
they just completed a breeding season. Often young males make their first
awkward attempts of singing at this time also and may sound very different
from the diagnostic species songs that the young birds will fine tune into
by listening to experienced conspecific in the following spring. Many
birds also deliberately sing during late fall and winter with the aim of
establishing and maintaining winter feeding territories.

Frode Jacobsen
Baltimore, MD



> 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.
>>
>> 
>>
>>
>>
>
>