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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --Boundary_(ID_5QaF2CAhuyxml/WtZym5Zg) Content-type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Ken McKenna Box 218 Stellarton NS B0K 1S0 902 752-7644 Hi all I have not been following the HRM screeching owl thread really closely, but concurrent with that observation we had an Eastern Screech Owl reported at Scotch Hill Pictou Co. about the first week of Sept. when I received an email from Eric Beals who reported an owl screeching from dusk till after he went to bed and even after that. It had been present for some time before that. On Sept. 11, Steve Vines and I went out to his property in Scotch Hill arriving at 7:45. We arrived with our windows down and could immediately hear the owl. It was calling about every minute or so. Prior to this Eric had told me he also saw the owl at times in the day hover as it hunted over the field below his house. Since a Hawk Owl was found dead at nearby Green Hill a couple of years ago and there was a report of another from a couple of US birders in search of rare geese last fall near Westville, I wanted to be sure that this was not what he was seeing or hearing. He had listened to a recording of Hawk Owl and felt this is what the bird could be. The 3 of us went down along Eric's yard to where the sound was coming from a small wooded area ( mixed woods). Within a few minutes, the owl come out and landed on the ground a maybe 40 m from us. None of us had taken a camera down as dusk was just upon us and we really had not expected to actually see the culprit making the screech. I immediately took of to my vehicle to get my camera. Before I could get a photo, the owl had flown to the top of a tree a bit further away, but still quite visible. Both Steve and I tried a couple of shots, but without a tripod the shots were pretty shaky. I also recorded one or 2 screeches with my I-pod. The owl was much too large for a Screech Owl, and we then considered either Long or Short-eared Owl. We ruled out the latter as the tufts were too long. Later, I had Randy Lauff with fresher eyes look at the fuzzy shots and he immediately thought Great Horned as the tufts were too far apart. Steve and Amber Vines went out a couple of nights later and again the owl came out on the ground at dusk and was seen running around the yard eating craneflies and other bugs!! Steve had his tripod this time and the photos show the bird to be a young Great Horned Owl just as Randy had thought. Interestingly, one tuft was very stunted. By the way in speaking with Eric we came to the conclusion that his daytime bird was a different raptor- a Kestrel. So the Pictou mystery screech now has a diagnosis. cheers Ken --Boundary_(ID_5QaF2CAhuyxml/WtZym5Zg) Content-type: text/html; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19120"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Ken McKenna<BR>Box 218 Stellarton NS<BR>B0K 1S0<BR>902 752-7644<BR></FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hi all</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I have not been following the HRM screeching owl thread really closely, but concurrent with that observation we had an Eastern Screech Owl reported at Scotch Hill Pictou Co. about the first week of Sept. when I received an email from Eric Beals who reported an owl screeching from dusk till after he went to bed and even after that. It had been present for some time before that. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>On Sept. 11, Steve Vines and I went out to his property in Scotch Hill arriving at 7:45. We arrived with our windows down and could immediately hear the owl. It was calling about every minute or so. Prior to this Eric had told me he also saw the owl at times in the day hover as it hunted over the field below his house. Since a Hawk Owl was found dead at nearby Green Hill a couple of years ago and there was a report of another from a couple of US birders in search of rare geese last fall near Westville, I wanted to be sure that this was not what he was seeing or hearing. He had listened to a recording of Hawk Owl and felt this is what the bird could be. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The 3 of us went down along Eric's yard to where the sound was coming from a small wooded area ( mixed woods). Within a few minutes, the owl come out and landed on the ground a maybe 40 m from us. None of us had taken a camera down as dusk was just upon us and we really had not expected to actually see the culprit making the screech. I immediately took of to my vehicle to get my camera. Before I could get a photo, the owl had flown to the top of a tree a bit further away, but still quite visible. Both Steve and I tried a couple of shots, but without a tripod the shots were pretty shaky. I also recorded one or 2 screeches with my I-pod. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>The owl was much too large for a Screech Owl, and we then considered either Long or Short-eared Owl. We ruled out the latter as the tufts were too long. Later, I had Randy Lauff with fresher eyes look at the fuzzy shots and he immediately thought Great Horned as the tufts were too far apart. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Steve and Amber Vines went out a couple of nights later and again the owl came out on the ground at dusk and was seen running around the yard eating craneflies and other bugs!! </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Steve had his tripod this time and the photos show the bird to be a young Great Horned Owl just as Randy had thought. Interestingly, one tuft was very stunted. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>By the way in speaking with Eric we came to the conclusion that his daytime bird was a different raptor- a Kestrel. So the Pictou mystery screech now has a diagnosis. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>cheers</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Ken</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML> --Boundary_(ID_5QaF2CAhuyxml/WtZym5Zg)--
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