Barred Owls

[JGoz]

We've been hearing two owls quite frequently for the past month+, during the evenings and nighttime, and even occassionally during mid-day. But in all that time we've only gotten one short look at one bird from afar. This is the first year we've seen them here in Nab. But recently, the owls have become much more visible. They're definitely Barred Owls. We've seen them in our trees at sunset three of the past four evenings. We're really enjoying our nightly owl show (except for the skeeters).

My question for everyone...besides the more traditional 'Who cooks for you, huh' we've been hearing/seeing lots of hissing by both birds. They aren't defending a kill or being bothered by crows or other birds, and they're hissing whether they're close to each other (~20') or relatively far apart (~30 yards). What's all this hissing about? Anybody know?

-Jim

[rcweir]

Interesting. We're hearing the main call over on Lowell Road, but haven't heard the hissing yet.

[DanD]

Don't like each other?

[JGoz]

Dan,
While we were watching our evening owl show, that thought had crossed our mind. We'd been reading about them in our Audobon bird book and figure they might be parent owls at about this time of year.

[Ghostdog]

Supposedly the jury is still out on the hissing. Some say its a mating call, others a defensive call and other say its a by product of their normal call. I had a number of Owls over here but Graniteville woods has shoo'd them and the rest of the wildlife over here away.

[JGoz]

Since I started this thread, we've seen the two owls every afternoon/evening. Pretty sure we have an adult and a growing juvenile who've taken up residence in the woods behind the house. When we see them together, there is quite a size difference. The smaller owl has more muted coloration, and chest feathers are much more downy. We've found several feathers in our yard...a mix of adult barred feathers and several small downy feather. We've seen the two interacting and only the small owl does the hissing. They groom each other. The smaller bird almost always has his/her eyes on the larger bird (Mom?), and the larger bird is scanning the surroundings and is always the one that'll fly away first. The small bird will always watch the bigger bird's departure, and within a couple of minutes the smaller bird always follows. From behavior we've seen in pet birds, the hissing seems to be a 'feed me' call from a growing juvenile.

We only have an older digital camera and haven't gotten a good photo due to the oncoming darkness, but here's a blurry photo of the juvenile. They must be finding our local chipmunks to be relatively tastey, they've been staying around.
-Jim

[JGoz]

For whatever reason(s), our two Barred Owls have moved on. After having seen them almost every day for close to a month, they've completely vanished. We miss our nightly owl show. Maybe they'll be back next Spring/Summer and we can enjoy them again.

I never managed to have our good digital camera in my hand when the owls showed themselves, but my neighbor managed to get a few good photos. Here are two.

Enjoy,
-Jim

[JGoz]

In our 21 years in town, I don't believe we'd ever seen an owl until just last summer. Last summer, we had an owl show just about every evening - watching them preen, fly amongst our old pines and oaks, and just hanging out until the mosquitos forced us inside. Last August, the owls we'd been watching every evening just seemed to vanish.

Several nights ago, we started hearing the 'Who cooks for you?' call and then all the hissing started again. We have confirmed four Barred Owls living/hunting in the woods around our home.

I sure hope they all have big appetites! I want them to get the chipmunk population under control around here.

-Jim

[dweir]

Great pics!

Now that you mention it -- we've been missing our owls too. And the bats. And the hawks are few and far between.

I am also hoping they will come dine on the chipmunks!! If it's like the last time there were an abundance of rodents, we'll see an increase in predators next year.