Thursday 6 October 2016

Barred owl update

I've heard nothing from our owls for ages. I attribute this to the fact that the momma and poppa set up the nest, then hunted day and night to feed the two chicks. Like First Nations, they know to move about, once the chicks are fledged and flying, to find new food sources.

Yesterday, I heard the jay harassing something. Sure enough, it looked like one of our owl chicks.

I heard the blue jays screaming, I figured there was something going on. Sure enough, it looks like one of our barred owl chick.

Then, the last week of August, I heard a soft soprano "Who-cooks-for-you?" at 2:00 a.m., the next night it was 4:00 a.m., and then I just heard some hooting, not the full two sentences.
The full song is "Who-cooks-for-you? Who-cooks-for-you-allllll?"



01:33
from Jennifer Jilks Added    113  3  0
I haven't seen momma and chicks, she's still feeding them. First, she is calling, watching, while you can hear the chicks cheeping. Then the robin family started harassing her. Robins must…







People at The Owl Foundation have been very helpful!
The Owl Foundation is a registered Canadian charitable organization focused on helping wild Canadian owls that are injured or orphaned. The Foundation operates an owl rehabilitation centre located in the Niagara Peninsula, Ontario, Canada.
Sandra wrote me:

Young owls may be dispersing so some can be more vocal at this time. Barred owls have a complex repertoire in addition to being one of our more vocal owls. The owl in your video does sound high-pitched as well. Like many owls, females have a higher pitched call than males and there is enough variation that individuals can be recognized by their call. Perhaps you can find some answers in the audio recordings at Macaulay Library, Dendroica or xeno-canto. The Owl Foundation also has these samples...

5 comments:

Silver in AZ said...

how wonderful, and how beautiful! You are very lucky! Owls are few and far between around here.

Nancy J said...

And if I move just a tad, I can see you? What a great video, and zooming in, this is so special. A helper, we all need one of those.

Out To Pasture said...

A perfect example of the payoff in paying attention to bird sounds. Those Jay's are great whistle blowing reporters and I'm quite intrigued with the difference you noticed in individual barred owl vocalizations. My cat birds (they were still here a couple of days ago) have many different calls and I am in no doubt when I'm getting told off by them when I get too close to their territory. Owl sightings always are a treat.

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
So glad they are still around! YAM xx

William Kendall said...

They're magical animals. I photographed a bird of prey here in the city the other day... not sure what it is.