It has been 6 days, I have 13 checklist and 14 warbler species--I have way to much time to bird. Unfortunately today was an exception, unfortunately because the birding was as good as it gets--anywhere. I have seen a fallout on High Island and birded Cape May numerous times, but today, in my own back yard, the warbler show was better than just about any other. 50+ birds in under 10 minutes, many just yards away. Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Blue, and Black-and-white were by far the most abundant species, but only 3 of the 12 seen today. If only I could have birded for more than an hour. The first week of August isn't exactly prime migration either. Last year my first warblers were on the 8th, and I finished with 21 species for the month.
Outside of Parulidae a Yellow-throated Vireo yesterday was the 50th species for the month and a first for the yard. This is interesting since this species is a bottom-land lover. Did it come up from the river, or is it a true migrant from some northerly sight? My guess is the latter, given that everything seems to be moving a little early.
Moving out of the passerines, on the night of 3rd we heard a strange noise from down the road. The scream/squeal vocalization had to have been a bird, but it didn't match any I could think of...so we grabbed headlamps and a sound recorder. Lucky for us the animal was close to the road. With a little patience and searching we found the culpable, a Barred Owl. This species is known to make a lot of different sounds, and this call has been recorded before, but a strange sound none the less.
Hey Spencer,
ReplyDeletePat Folsom told me to check out your site for your strange bird sound story. I too have heard this, and the first time, wow...it was very creepy. I described it as a hissing seee-up sound. I figure out who it was by sitting at the base of a tree and doing a Barred Owl call, in a short time I had three individual somethings doing the seeee-up call around me. The culprits, three juvenile Barred Owls! Turns out they were begging for food from their parents. Good stuff!
Curious...what did you use to record the owl??
Bridget
@BirdDiva
birddiva.com
Hi Bridget,
ReplyDeleteA very strange noise indeed. I have seen conflicting information about the age of the culprit (female vs. begging young). The 2 owls I saw looked like adults, but hard to tell at night. The noise has continued on and off this week.
They were recorded with a $79 Olympus model DS-30 Digital Voice Recorder--well worth the money.
Spencer