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After blowing like a banshee from the southeast all night, the wind dropped out from 50+ knots to just a whisper this evening. The skies cleared, and with the temperature hovering around the freezing mark (and black ice building on the highways) I decided to try some more Saw-whet owling. This time I had an assistant with a little better hearing that mine, so we were able to pick up on a few things I might not otherwise have heard. Laurie Murison was my co-pilot this evening, and we spent about two hours, covering the Whistle, Dock, and Airport Roads. We had our first N. SAW-WHET OWLS at a gravel pit along Eel Brook, one tooting and a second making its "skiew-type" call. Our third Saw-whet was tooting at Eel Lake, and our fourth and fifth (one tooting and the other "skiewing") at the new gravel pit near Rocky Corner (formerly known as "Buckwheat Hill" but now just a gaping hole in the ground). Our sixth stop was another old gravel pit just up the Dock Road, where we got our first LONG-EARED OWL of the night. We got our second a few minutes later on the new Bayview Heights Drive. Our tenth and final stop (we were out from about 8:30 - 10:30 pm) was at the end of the New Airport Road, and we think we had our third LONG-EARED OWL, but we were not absolutely certain. Sometimes these critters only call once, and given the range of calls a Saw-whet can make, we're not certain it wasn't one of those, but we're leaning toward Long-eared. So eight owls in 10 stops is a pretty good night of owlling, any way you slice it. Now, if I can just upgrade my 20-year-old cassette tape player for a new CD unit, I'll really be cookin'. Brian Dalzell Bancroft Point Grand Manan, NB. P.S. Other wildlife included one muskrat, six white-tailed deer, one unidentified songbird calling, and a wood frog stimulated to start "chuckling" by our Saw-whet tape. And we saw three shooting stars....
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