While gone this evening, my wife, Bethany, and the boys got to see an owl in
our yard. It was too dark to see if it was a saw-whet or screech owl, but
its behavior was interesting to watch. It would fly from one perch to
another, and to the ground, and back to a perch. Some of the places it
chose to land were the side of tree trunks, no limbs, just cling to the
trunk. In fact, Bethany first saw it when it flew to a trunk and gripped
it. Her first thought was it would be a flying squirrel, but then she
quickly saw it was a bird.
The binoculars didn't gather enough light to look for ear tufts, and they
didn't think of the yard light right away. It was enjoyable though, to get
to see this. I don't suppose the landing behavior on the side of a tree
trunk gives you avid birders any clue which species of owl this was?
Saw-whet would be the less common for sure, this time of year.
We heard a chuck-wills-widow again on Sunday evening a little before 9:00
p.m., though we didn't listen the last two evenings.
Kevin Shank
Rockingham County
