July 25, 2002 - An ode to the screech owlThe Suffolk Times • July 25, 2002
to the screech owl
Times /Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
These are the young of the screech owl. We hear the melodious trill of the adults in
the early evening when they start their nightly feeding. —
IT WAS JUST A LITTLE before
sunset when a group of us were
sitting around the back deck
chatting about this and that. The
subject of a summer tanager
that my son had seen at
Brookhaven came into the con-
versation. He knew the song of
this rare visitor, so for fun we
thought
Focus we'd get out
our record-
ON ings of bird
NATURE songs to lis-
ten to this
by Paul unfamiliar
Stoutenbu gh bird. Well,
believe it or
not, we couldn't find the sum-
mer tanager in the group of
recorded calls. We had every-
thing from yellow - bellied sap-
suckers to the common crow,
but no summer tanager.
While we had the recorder
out, we slipped in the disc for
our common screech owl. It just
happened to be the right hour
for these night hunters, just a lit-
tle after the sun had set. This is
when screech owls become most
active. After one or two playings
of the record, sure enough, we
were answered by some screech
owls in our woods. As we kept
playing the recording, they came
closer and closer. We think it was a
family, for later on we would see two
of them silhouetted against the
evening sky. We were sure they were
young raised right in our own woods;
but we had not been aware of them;
so much escapes our busy eyes and
ears.
The microphonograph is a little
hand -held recorder whose sound
doesn't carry very far. Yet these
screech owls heard it and came to
the challenge to see who had invad-
ed their territory. This use of a
recording has proven useful in our
annual bird counts, when we play it
before dawn. It accounts for the
higher number of screech owls we
get. Before using electronic record-
ings came into play, we'd only get
one or two on our counts. Now it's
not uncommon to get eight, 10 or
even more screech owls as we move
around to different locations. I've
often called in these little owls just
by mimicking their call with my own
version of it.
The little screech owl is the small-
est of all our owls except for the tiny
saw -whet owl, which is rather rare on
our island. The screech owl is strictly
a nocturnal bird, doing all of its
hunting in the evening hours. Some
owls hunt during the day.
It's sort of too bad they attached
the name screech owl to such a won-
derful little owl for the call is quite
melodious. It's a tremulous, descend-
ing sound with soft purrs and trills,
quite pleasant and not at all a
screech. I think we had particularly
good luck that evening because of
the young owls that were in the area.
I'm sure the adults kept in contact
with them through their calls as they
moved in closer and closer to check
on us.
These little owls have big eyes with
bright yellow irises. Their black
pupils can shift from wide open in
the darkness to almost pin -point size
in bright sun. And, of course, owls
have that wonderful ability to turn
their head around up to 280 degrees.
It almost seems as if their head could
become unscrewed.
The screech owl weighs a mere
seven ounces on average. Screech
owls come in two color phases, one
red and the other gray. No one
knows why they have these two
phases. The one I am most familiar
with is the red phase, which is more
or less a rusty color.
These owls have little ear tufts that
are merely feathers, not ears,
that can be raised up or lowered
at will. Their particular love for
nesting cavities in trees serves
them well, both as a nesting and
roosting place and as a safe
haven from predators.
Occasionally they will nest in a
bird box with a large opening.
Believe it or not, one of the
great enemies of these little
screech owls is the great horned
owl, which seems to relish pick-
ing them off at nighttime. But
the greatest danger comes from
man and his highways and
byways. I remember someone
calling me from Mattituck saying
he had an owl caught in his radi-
ator grille. Sure enough, I went
up and there was this little owl
in the grille of the car. I worked
at it and got it out. After a few
days it regained its composure
and we let it go.
Mice and shrews make up the
majority of the owl's diet, but it
will also eat insects of many
kinds, particularly big beetles
that it often captures on the
wing. We've been told owls will
actually attack something as big
as themselves, small barnyard
fowl or an occasional fish or
even a frog; the owl, with its
silent wings, will soon make a meal
of anything that moves. Owls are of
great economic value to the farmer
as well as a help to you and me.
For its size, the screech owl is
probably the most fierce of all our
owls, fierce in protecting its young. I
can vouch for that, for once over in
Brookhaven there was a nest with
young screech owls in an apple tree.
I had gone up to look at them, not
knowing the adults were nearby. I
put my hand in the opening — then
it happened. One of the adults hit me
in the back of the head! Luck would
have it I had a hat on. The owl car-
ried the hat a few feet and then
dropped it. It didn't take me long to
get out of there.
So you see, the little screech owls
that we call in are wonderful crea-
tures. They don't migrate but stay in
our area throughout the year.
Usually people don't realize they are
there, but on some quiet evening you
might be surprised to hear the melo-
dious trills and purrs of a screech owl
and vou'll never foreet it.