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Thanks to those who responded to my query about all the
Saw-whet Owls on my survey route. One possibly important point,
which I had failed to mention, is that we heard 9 of the 10 owls
during the first two minutes of the survey, during the "silent
listening" period. That is, they were calling BEFORE we began to
broadcast owl calls. It is significant that the owls were freely
calling, without being "enticed" or "provoked" by a recording. I
have received an expert opinion that this indicates that the Saw-whet
Owls were therefore indeed "on territory" and not still in migration.
Cheers,
Patricia L. Chalmers
At 11:45 PM 04/04/2010, Patricia L. Chalmers wrote:
> Suzanne Borkowski and I ran my Nocturnal Owl Survey Route
> (Tangier) on Friday night, 2 April. (lots omitted ...)
>
> This is the eighth year that Suzanne and I have run this
> route, and the results this year were unlike any other. Since the
> road is paved for nearly the whole route, this is often the first
> route we do, in early April. Normally we have Great Horneds and a
> smaller number of Barreds, and usually Saw-whets as well. However
> this year was amazing. Nearly every stop had at least one Saw-whet
> Owl, and we also heard four Barred Owls and two Great Horned Owls,
> for a total of sixteen owls! This is more owls than we have ever
> had before on this route. The fog caught up with us late in the
> evening before the last three stops, which are usually our best
> locations for the big owls. We were anticipating finding even more
> birds there, but none of the big owls were calling, perhaps because of the fog.
>
> I am wondering if all those calling Saw-whets were actually
> "on territory" (the habitat is certainly suitable) or if they were
> still in migration. Would they be calling if they had not yet
> established territories? We usually have a few on this route, but
> never before so many or so evenly distributed.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Patricia L. Chalmers
> Halifax
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