Upcounty Owl Action

[Don Simonson]

I have been enjoying a lot owl action in Darnestown and the upper county. Pre-dawn  a Great Horned Owl called steadily from 5 am to 545, the first Great Horned I have heard here in 20 years. My neighbors at both ends of the street report seeing young owls.

At nightfall, I found a pair of impatient fledgling Barred Owls along the banks of the upper Potomac, with a patient parent perched nearby waiting for frogs or snakes. Last night a pair of Barred Owls .  At midnight, a pair of adult Barred Owls exploded in earsplitting caterwauling very from my neighbor's yard. 

The owl mix has changed here over the fifty years I have lived in Darnestown. I am lucky to have observed in my yard, every species of owl I believe ever recorded in Maryland (do we have Boreal yet Phil?)

  In 1970 Darnestown and the nearby Seneca Creek drainage (now part of Seneca State Park) Barred Owls were abundant, Barn Owls uncommon, Eastern Screech-owls common, and Great Horned uncommon residents. Short-eared Owls were regular though uncommon winter visitors; Northern Saw-whet and Long-eared rare winter visitors 

In my own Darnestown neighborhood, Eastern Screech-owls were commonplace, at times abundant, several pairs nesting just on our street, with a pair nesting in my yard til about 1990 (in ten years, I only glimpsed one of the adults once at dusk!) all the rest of the years I just heard them and the young.  A pair of Great Horned Owls moved in, the woods became dry, the understory was lost to White-tailed Deer and the Screech-owls eaten.  Within three years, only one pair of screech owls remained out of five or six known.  Then Barred Owls were cleaned out within a year or two; like the screech-owls, one pair remained at one end. .   The following winter I noticed I had heard no Great Horned Owls calling in a year. The next winter, a pair of Barred Owls were present, and a secnd pair soon after,, but the Horned Owl pair and Screech-owls did not.

Good Birding ! 

Don Simonson

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[Phil Davis]

Hi Don:

No, no Boreals, or Hawk-Owls, yet. But ... we do have a "record" of a 1939 Great Gray Owl from Westminster, MD. It's actually a museum specimen (in the Denver Museum of Natural History).

Obviously, there are some "questions and issues" surrounding its provenance. We have not subject it to a review yet, since the open issues would seal its fate.

It's a very long story ... best shared over a beer ... but if you want more details, let me know.

Phil

At 22:22 07/31/2021, Don Simonson wrote:

I am lucky to have observed in my yard, every species of owl I believe ever recorded in Maryland (do we have Boreal yet Phil?)

===================================================
Phil Davis, Secretary
MD/DC Records Committee
2549 Vale Court
Davidsonville, Maryland  21035     USA
301-261-0184
pda...@ix.netcom.com
===================================================

[Francesca Grifo]

For the 4th night in a row I have been enchanted by 2 great horned owls enthusiastically vocalizing near my suburban back yard. Yes - I have several giant beech trees and tulip poplars, very tall conifers and nearly all native plants on my 12,000 square foot lot - but I am 2 blocks off Massachusetts Avenue in Bethesda! I am just behind the Glen Echo Fire Station for those who know the area. It’s wonderful and unusual. I have lived here over 15 years and while I hear owls - great horned and barred - routinely in the winter and spring, hearing great horned owls in the summer is a first.

Wow!

Francesca 

Francesca T. Grifo

Sent from my iPhone - please forgive my brevity!

“...ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

" Charles Darwin, 1871 

On Aug 2, 2021, at 5:31 PM, Phil Davis <pda...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:

 Hi Don:

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