OWLS Topic for Second Saturday

Barred Owl at HNWR, by Monica Muil

This Saturday, March 14, 2015,  Dr. Wayne Meyer, Associate Professor of Biology at Austin College will speak on “Owls” at 10 am in the Visitor Center at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, and in the evening at 7 pm he will lead an Owl Walk, that will depart from the Big Mineral Picnic Area at the Refuge.

With a nod to Dr. Meyer’s topic, here is some owl trivia gathered on the worldwide web:

To watch a nest of Great Horned Owls, here is a link to a webcam site belonging to Cornell Lab of Ornithology.  

Interesting facts about owls, from Texas Parks &Wildlife include:

• Most owls are active primarily at twilight and by night.
• Owl flight is silent, thanks to the combination of large wings, small bodies and special fringed and velvet textured feathers which deaden sound.
• Owls have superb eyesight, between 35 and 100 times the sensitivity of the human eye, and excellent night vision.
• Owl vision is binocular and while, unlike humans, the owl cannot rotate its eyeballs, it can rotate its neck from 180 degrees up to 270 degrees.
• Owls have excellent hearing, with ear openings concealed behind the edges of the facial eye disks, which can be moved to listen in different directions.  Their hearing is especially tuned to detect high frequency sounds made by prey.
• Ear tufts do not play a part in the owl’s hearing; birds do not have protruding external ears.

The website, Journey North  offers a menu of audio clips for listening to owls.  You are sure to learn more from Dr. Meyer at Second Saturday!

Note - Second Saturday programs at held year around at Hagerman NWR, sponsored by the Refuge and the Friends of Hagerman,  and are free and open to the public.

Owl-o-ween at HNWR

Great Horned Owl at HNWR, by Mike Chiles

Happy Owl-o-ween!  Although 8 species of owls have been seen at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge, the most frequently seen owls at Hagerman  are listed in the Bird Checklist only as “Occasional” or seen a few times in a season; they are the Eastern Screech Owl, the Great Horned Owl, and the Barred Owl.  

Interesting facts about owls, from Texas Parks &Wildlife include:

• Most owls are active primarily at twilight and by night.
• Owl flight is silent, thanks to the combination of large wings, small bodies and special fringed and velvet textured feathers which deaden sound.
• Owls have superb eyesight, between 35 and 100 times the sensitivity of the human eye, and excellent night vision.
• Owl vision is binocular and while, unlike humans, the owl cannot rotate its eyeballs, it can rotate its neck from 180 degrees up to 270 degrees.
• Owls have excellent hearing, with ear openings concealed behind the edges of the facial eye disks, which can be moved to listen in different directions.  Their hearing is specially tuned to detect high-frequency sounds made by prey.
• Ear tufts do not play a part in the owl’s hearing; birds do not have protruding external ears.

Owls are credited with possessing great wisdom in myth and folklore, as in this short anonymous poem found on the TPWD site:

A wise old owl sat in an oak,
The more he saw the less he spoke,
The less he spoke the more he heard,
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird.

Owls have also been traditionally associated with evil spirits and Halloween, perhaps because of their eerie calls and night-time activity.  Have a little Halloween fun with these recorded owl calls from Cornell Lab of Ornithology:

Barred Owl  

Eastern Screech Owl 

Great Horned Owls

This post was originally published on 10/31/2013.

Cycle Of Life In Hagerman

Post and photos by Marolyn and Skeeter Lasuzzo

We had been watching an old hawk nest at Hagerman NWR, hoping the hawk would return this year.  The nest had been empty every day, but on this day a large bird flew from the nest as we stopped to take a look.  It was not the hawk we expected, but instead it was a Great Horned Owl.  Since it was obvious that the owl was very wary of people, it became very important for us to make certain we did not disturb the owl too much or it might abandon the nest.  We would visit the nest once a week for no longer than five minutes.  This was fine until others heard about the nest and many observers were stopping to take a look.  The adult would leave the nest when a car stopped and be frantic to return to its eggs.  The word soon spread "to be respectful of the nest" and most people limited their visits.

We left to spend a few weeks in Wyoming with the hopes that the adult owls would be left undisturbed long enough for the eggs to hatch and some little owlets to appear.  One of the first things we did upon our return to Texas was to go to Hagerman and check out the nest.  And there they were.  Two little owlets staring back at us with those big yellow eyes.

Photographers should always be very cognizant of their impact on the wildlife they are photographing, especially  baby birds in a nest as well as the parents trying to feed them.  No image is worth risking any animal's safety.  For that reason, Marolyn and I spent a few days observing the nest from a distance with binoculars.  We determined the adults would arrive at the nest within 5 minutes of 7:00 P.M. to check on the owlets or bring food to the nest.  Gathering this type of information from afar allowed us to determine when we could get in position to capture significant images with a minimum amount of disturbance.  We usually spent less than 5 minutes at a safe distance from the nest to capture most of our images.  

On one afternoon, we arrived at our vantage point to photograph the owls at around 7 minutes 'til 7:00 P.M.  The adult arrived at 7:00 P.M. carrying a large wood rat.  She flew in, took a short glance at us in our vehicle, and  determined we were no threat.  She turned to feed her babies (notice the less aggressive owlet peeking over the nest near the adult's legs).  If she had looked at us and been uncomfortable, leaving the nest with the food and not immediately returning, we would have left.  Once the feeding begins we must stay until the adult finishes feeding and leaves the nest on her own.  Starting our vehicle to leave during feeding would scare the adult off the nest.

Life and death is part of nature.  Seeing the little owlets grow and survive speaks to life and renewal and the cycle of life.  One always worries about baby animals surviving the first tough months of life.  The survival rate of wild birds and animals is surprisingly low - so many things can happen.  One doesn't really think about survival of the parents of the babies.  That's why we were surprised when we received an e-mail from a friend at Hagerman about the death of one of the adult Great Horned Owls that was a parent of the owlets in the nest.  Evidently, the adult was hit by a car on a side road near the nest.  The owl was still alive, but according to the representative from the wildlife rehab center who was called in to examine the injured owl, there was no hope of it surviving and it had to be euthanized.

When owls hunt, they are very focused and intense.  They spot their prey and dive toward it, not paying attention to much around them - sometimes flying into the path of an oncoming vehicle.  We saw this happen to a Great Grey Owl in the Tetons a couple of years ago.  It's always sad to lose a magnificent creature like this to an accident, especially when one has been following it during its nesting and "young feeding" period.

The attention then turned to the babies and whether the single adult would be able to feed the owlets until they fledged and could feed on their own.  I'm happy to report that the single adult did successfully feed its young and the little owlets have left the nest and should have fledged by now.  Hopefully the lone parent can keep the owlets alive.  As far as we know, they are doing fine.  

Woo-Hoo - Housing Project at Refuge

By Dick & Sue Malnory

The Friends of Hagerman are building nest boxes for Screech Owls, Barn Owls and Barred Owls at Hagerman NWR, with materials provided by the Refuge. A total of eight boxes will be mounted on poles by Grayson Collin Electric Cooperative, when the time comes to move power poles in the construction process for the new building - the power company will donate and install the poles, as well as hang the boxes.

This is a big deal - well, the next boxes are big! The Audubon design for the Screech Owl nest box (http://www.audubonmagazine.org/backyard/backyard0201.html) is approximately 9”x 9” x 20” tall, with a 3” diameter entrance hole. The roof slopes, with an overhang on the front side. For the Barn Owl or the Barred Owl, the box design by Norman Watenpaugh, (http://www.scvas.org/pdf/cbrp/BuildingBarnOwlBoxes.pdf) is approximately 17” x 24” x 22” tall, with a sloping roof. The entrance is rectangular, 6” x 8” and there is a perch.

Four Screech Owl boxes and four Barn/Barred Owl boxes are being built. In order for the Barred Owls to use the nest box, those must be placed at least a mile apart, and in a wooded area. The Barn Owl’s territorial size is just the area around the nest box, and their boxes will be placed in open prairie at the Refuge, their preferred habitat. Screech Owls' habitat is at the edge of woods, and their territory, like that of the Barn Owl, is the area around the nest.

Barn and Barred Owl boxes will be placed from 10’ to 20’ off the ground, while Screech Owl boxes can be situated 5’ to 20’ high.

The other owl seen at Hagerman NWR, the Great Horned Owl, is not a cavity nester, but rather takes over the abandoned nest of other birds such as hawks or crows, or even the nest of squirrels.
Visitors to the Refuge will probably not see the owl boxes as they will be placed away from public use area, but be assured that support for the Refuge and the Friends projects is helping to grow the owl population of the area.

For more information about Hagerman NWR, see http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/texas/hagerman/index.html and for information about programs and activities, see http://www.friendsofhagerman.com.