Last Saturday a large group of owl-obsessed birders met in Williamsburg for the Birding for Everyone program's annual owl prowl. We only do one owl prowl each year because finding an owl can be a rather hit or miss event, which I explained to the the many headlamp wearing people in the parking lot before we began.
The Henhawk Trailhead was chosen this year because it is remote, has good habitat for multiple species of owls, and offers an easy to walk, flat dirt road (accessibility is a key tenet of the Birding for Everyone program)
We walked about 1/8th of a mile down to a dense stand of coniferous trees, which seemed like excellent habitat for the two smaller owls in our area, the Northern Saw-whet Owl and the Eastern Screech Owl. An owl prowl is the only time I ever use playback (we want to be the least obtrusive in nature as we can) and even then it's done in small bursts.
With everyone gathered around, we started by playing vocalizations of the smallest owl, the Northern-saw Whet Owl. You start with the smallest birds first because they do predate on each other and if a smaller owl hears a larger one it will hunker down and go silent. The track played for about thirty seconds and then we stopped and listened.
A loud, cat-like call note called back! A bit more playback was sent out through our speaker. Another call in response, this time closer! We scanned the trees with red flashlights hoping to get the reflection of the eyes bouncing back to us. No luck.
The call notes of the Northern Saw-whet Owl and the Eastern Screech Owl, at least to my ear as I don't hear these sounds too often, can sound similar. I was leaning towards this bird being and Eastern Screech Owl, so I switched to playback sounds from that bird.
Our owl went silent.
Playback of both of the small owls was tried a few more times but, unfortunately, no luck. However, in the distance a Barred Owl could be heard singing the traditional "who cooks for you, who cooks for you all" song, which is always a treat to hear.
With the small owl silent we moved back towards the cars, stopping at a swampy area that seemed like decent habitat for the two larger owls, the Barred Owl and the Great Horned Owl. However, despite several attempted calls out to them we received no response. We had only the glow from the beautiful full moon that hung above us to admire.
Back at that cars I recapped what we had heard and the strategy that I had employed in the field (I could only convey so much information to everyone while we were trying to stay as quiet as possible in the field). I also answered any questions people had and did promise that I would update them all on exactly what that call note we heard was, which I did via email moments ago.
Fellow walk leader Brian Zylichhad been quick enough to record one of those cat-like call notes that we heard. He sent it around to me and Marcia Merithew, who also helped lead this walk (you need a lot of walk leaders when you have forty participants!). After further analysis by us and a few bird experts above our pay-grade, it was determined that this was, in fact, a Northern Saw-whet Owl! What a thrill!
Now I only wish I hadn't switched to the Eastern Screech Owl call when I did. Lesson learned.
So we may not have had a large number of owls show up, but we didn't get shutout (phew!) and we were all able to clearly hear the call notes of what I consider to be the most difficult owl to find in our area, the Northern Saw-whet Owl.
If you would like to hear the recording, it is posted on the eBird checklist for this walk.
A big thank you to everyone who attended this event. We had fifty-one people register for this event, which was a record for any Birding for Everyone program. I, and the rest of the club, appreciate your interest in this program. It is wonderful to see the community that has grown around it.
Next month we take a break to give the Christmas Bird Count space, but we will be back in January for a new year of Birding for Everyone events!
Happy Holidays to all of you.
