Visit a secret owl-banding station hidden somewhere along the coast of Maine. We hope for boreal owls and long-eared owls, but the real guests of honor are northern saw-whet owls. Adorable!
When I was a kid, I got to see a couple of them in a nature rehabilitation place and they had them engages and I was able to like walk up and I’m really close and the guy there says Bob your head up and down so I did in the thing just starts copying me. It was the cutest thing in the world.
Yes, they are pretty docile. They will snap their bills if they begin to get upset. The biologists are very experienced, and know how to treat the birds gently.
Cute little tooters! We had one here that was so predictable and always "tooted" in the same place in the same way at the same time every single night for years. So predictable that I SWORE it was an electronic alarm in my neighbors yard. I was actually going to talk to them about it and let them know until one night about three years after I first heard him, he was in MY yard! I still didn't know it was an owl though so I went and got my spotlight and went and found him. If he was three inches tall I'd be surprised. But even with a spotlight in his face, all he/she did was look down at me and just keep on a-tootin'! toot toot toot toot! Same rhythm, never took a break and the little bugger did it for hours on end.
They are so tame in the woods, too. There are many stories of hunters spotting one, and just walking right up to say hi. Sometimes, they show up in back yards in migration, and just sit there while neighbors amble up. Cute.
Great video!!!! Outstanding project!!! Keep them coming!! We are down at Huntington Beach state park in South Carolina great variety of birds to see this year. We were woken up by a Great Horned owl duet this morning at about 0155 hrs.
I’ve heard these in the Appalachians of Alabama and Georgia but I still haven’t seen a wild one in person. They’re so tiny and hidden. I’ve seen them at the zoo before though.
Thanks. The movement map at 2:00 minutes shows them coming down from Newfoundland, but it could have been clearer. Meanwhile, I'm eager to revisit Newfoundland, especially if you'll tell me where you hide the boreal owls.
I wish! Boreal owl is my most coveted bird. I really want one. None seen this season. A pair showed up in these nets two years ago. I got an alert phone call at home, but I was too far away to visit. The birds are treated with great care, and had to be released promptly. So I'm STILL hopeful that some day...
@@Bob_Duchesne Same. I try to stay on top of all boreal owl records in Maine because their presence here is really fascinating for me, but sadly we haven’t crossed paths yet. Don’t be surprised if you stumble on a pair next summer or something, they seem to always turn up when you don’t expect lol. I’m hopeful for the same.
@@Bob_Duchesne ya.... we were on week 4 of it crying but he 8" of snow this week I think buried it. now we just got 12 or so more snow I actually feeling bad for it lol
I can’t imagine banding INSIDE a trailer. Where’s the fun in being warm, having a toilet, and not having to fear your chair falling apart under you? And no heavy dew soaking up your papers??
I know where it is I won’t disclose that but I definitely know where I’ve worked on goose banding at the moose horn national wildlife refuge, but I’m guessing you guys are somewhere around Acadia
@@Bob_Duchesne yeah I have like 100+ acres that borderlines the moose horn that I hunt on it connects to a lot of those four wheeler trails that go through it. I run into owls all the time out there hunting lotta pileated woodpeckers too.
@@Bob_Duchesne couple years ago hunting. I had a barred owl, fly off about 5 feet in front of me. It was sitting in a low fir tree the people I was hunting with pulls up, but I was like that’s an owl don’t shoot it’s crazy because they can be right next to you and takeoff and you wouldn’t even hear them. The only reason why I heard the owl is because it shook the tree.
I have a question about the snapping their bills -- I caught a little owl on my trail cam (video) last night, and since I'm in Oklahoma, I assumed he was a screechie since we have those. However, while he was sitting in the creek in shallow water, he was snapping / clicking his bill. Sooo -- do screechies do that, too, or did I actually catch a saw-whet?? Since it's night time video, seeing any colors is very hard, and the IR tends to blow out any light parts when close up, so it's even harder. I've caught little owls before, and there's no telling if I've ID'd them correctly. So what do you think? And, do screechies snap, too? Thanks! :)
I don't have screech owls near me, so I don't know about them. Other non-owls do bill snapping, so the behavior isn't rare. The saw-whets are so docile, they barely snapped on this night.
@@Bob_Duchesne Thanks for taking the time to reply! I guess I need to stay on my quest to find out if screechies snap, too :) If other owls do, it would make sense that screechies are no exception, however. Thank you!
Nope. There are eastern, western, and whiskered screech owls in North America. Northern saw-whet owls are different, and a little bit smaller. And they sound completely different. I do wish I had screech owls living near me.
Yes, they would, but not much farther south. They prefer it dense and coniferous, so they range all the way down the Rockies at elevation, but they thin out in the Midwest once you get south of Michigan
Update your map. We get them as far south as central Florida. Northern Palm Beach County to be precise. You can see them perched in oak trees, and hear them. Sounds like rattlesnakes flying around.
