EXCITING ENCOUNTERS WITH OWLS

     Over several years, I have had many exciting encounters with owls in southeastern Pennsylvania, including permanent resident great horned owls, screech owls, barred owls and barn owls, and wintering long-eared owls and snowy owls.  The owls and their calls are another bit of the wild here, as elsewhere.  And all owls prey on creatures smaller than themselves.  

     At dawn and dusk, through the years, I've heard several pairs of horned owls hooting repeatedly and boisterously to each other in woods and older suburbs, particularly during December when they are courting.  We hear a pair of these wonderful owls in our suburban neighborhood, sometimes in the middle of the night.  Usually, all these two-foot-tall birds are chilling voices in the twilight, but occasionally I see one of those handsomely camouflaged owls perched in a tree or flying between trees.

     In this area, each beautiful female horned owl lays one to three eggs in an open, stick cradle high in a treetop, usually a conifer, by the beginning of February.  They nest early so that their progeny are on their own by early June when prey critters are abundant for the inexperienced young to hunt.  And those juvenile owls have time to develop their hunting skills before the next winter.  

     I've been lucky to spot a few horned owls, "in the flesh", on their stick nurseries with their young.  And now I see horned owl families through live cameras and our computer screen.

     Over the years, I have been thrilled to hear many screech owls' eerie, descending whinnies in several local woods, and older suburbs with lots of big trees.  And I have been happy to see several of them sitting and dozing in the entrances to their tree cavity homes during the day in woods and suburbs.  I've also seen a few perched in sheltering evergreen trees on lawns, or flying across a road or field.  

     One-foot-tall screech owls begin courting early in March.  We've heard screech owls' descending wailings around our suburban home in winter at times, early in March when they are courting and late in July when, I think, young birds are setting up and proclaiming their own territories.  Late in May, one year, five young, cute screech owls perched on a railing on our front porch and waited to be fed by their parents.  What a delight they were to see!

     I've heard barred owl pairs' loud, startling eight-hooting at night, and during the day, more often than I've seen them.  Those owls are mostly wild, chilling voices in the night that send some folks running.  

     The attractive, two-foot barred owls inhabit woods that border creeks, lakes and swamps.  I mostly hear them along the Conestoga River, Pequea Creek and Octoraro Lake in Lancaster County.  And its in those habitats that each pair of them annually raises two young in a tree hollow.

     Barn owls are uncommon here, but I have seen some through the years.  I watched a few emerging from silos where they roost by day, and raise babies.  I've spotted a couple cruising over fields at dusk as they watched for mice in tall grass.  And I saw a barn owl before sunrise every winter morning for a week or more flying low over snow-covered fields in search of prey.  The owl was visible because outdoor lights shone on clouds, that illuminated the snow and bounced up to the owl's white belly. 

     I have spotted little groups of wintering long-eared owls perched high in stands of tall coniferous trees since I was about eleven.  Those beautiful, well-camouflaged owls prefer conifers because those trees protect them from cold wind and birds that don't like owls and would pest them all day.  

     Regurgitated pellets, from the fur and bones of the mice they ingested, lying on the ground under their needled roosts, give away their presence.  I look up, and there they are, looking down at me.  

     At dusk, in winter, I'm happy to see silhouetted long-ears leaving their comfortable perches to hunt mice in nearby fields or woods.  One after the other, they silently dash away and gone, probably not to return until dawn the next day.                     

     Every so many winters, a few snowy owls come to farmland in the United States, including here in Lancaster County.  Down from the Arctic tundra, where they hatched, they come here when there is a crash of lemming populations on the tundra.  

     I was thrilled to see three snowy owls sitting in three snow-covered, open fields in Lancaster County during the winter of 2013 to 2014; and I haven't seen any here since.  One of those snowy owls was feasting on a snow goose that it might have killed, or scavenged.  Those large, open fields remind the owls of the tundra; their home.

     I have been thrilled by many owls through the years.  They all have beautiful plumages and bring another bit of the wild to developed southeastern Pennsylvania, for which I am grateful.