Screech Owls Lay Eggs in Mid-March

Screech owl in a neighbor's box.  My neighbor reports the owl comes out nightly a half hour before sunset.  (Photo by Debbie Hurlbert)

Screech owl box in a tree near Apple Valley Clubhouse, in park across from our home.  Photo taken Jan. 2, 2014 at 5:50 p.m., showing no leaves inside box or any signs of occupancy then.  (Photo by Don Comis)

I took a short walk today across the road to the park near the Apple Valley Clubhouse to check the lake for ducks and check out the screech owl bird house.

When I put my binoculars on the bird house, I saw it was stuffed with dried leaves.  Screech owls lay their eggs in Ohio in mid-March, so this might be an active nest.  I plan to check on this nest frequently, especially a half hour before sunset because a neighbor sees "his" screech owl leave the box provided in his yard that time daily.

The way this day was so cold and windy I could see why the owl might want all that insulation!  The lake was mostly frozen so I saw no signs of ducks.

I did see two crows yelling at a hawk, a flock of 12 robins, and two deer.  I knew to look whenever crows caw because they might be chasing a hawk, but I forgot that when the crows are fixed on a tree, I should look a few limbs below them.  The first time I looked I didn't see a hawk.  Later, on the walk home, I looked from another angle and saw the big bird below the crows.

Barred Owls But No Salamanders

This morning's view of the vernal pool, with most of the ice melted and filled with water from snowmelt and rain. (Photo by Don Comis)

Oz, a barred owl held by Mrs. Vann, a.k.a. Manon Van Schoyck, executive director of Ohio NatureEducation--a private nonprofit organization dedicated to caring for animals, like Oz, that can no longer survive in the wild.  Oz's wild days ended when he got hopelessly tangled in a soccer net.  (Photo by Don Comis)

  
With all the conditions seeming right for a salamander/amphibian migration this morning--temperature in the high 40's Fahrenheit, rain, and temperatures in the 60's yesterday--I decided to brave the rain and check out the vernal pool in Gambier, Ohio.

I had no luck but did scare up a little creature, a mammal that looked like something other than a squirrel.  Since it was just at daybreak and the light was still low and it was running from the river toward the woods, I decided it might be a mink.


I did hear two owls calling to each other--I think they were barred owls saying, "We have a nest here, no other owls allowed in our territory!"

Unless they were chasing me out too, as the mockingbird coupled did again today on my way out.

From the Brown Family Environmental Center's north side, I then drove to the south side to check for the horned owls nesting in a pine plantation.  March lived up to its moon's name, "Mud Moon," as I kept slipping on the muddy and icy parts of the trail, finally falling once, without harm.

I didn't see any owls but enjoyed the magic, if a bit intimidating, pine forest lair.  I also got to see a rabbit running toward me and many birds.

When it was all over, the birds I could identify were, besides the barred owls:  red-winged blackbirds, three song sparrows, a mourning dove, bluebirds, and crows.

Speaking of birds, I'm encouraged by a birdwatcher's e-mail about his hearing the "peenting" call of a woodcock near a school in Dublin, Ohio, about 50 miles to the south of the Brown Center.  That call is the prelude to woodcock's mating "Sky Dance."

Feed Crows!

When crows chased a Cooper's hawk today from a perch aimed at my feeder birds, I realized the corn and peanuts I was feeding them in a minor feeder in my backyard had payoffs in my main feeding area in my front yard.


I wasn't surprised the crows chase hawks.  When I took a brief Birds of Prey course, I learned that one good way to spot a hawk (or owl) is to look up when you hear crows call.  If you see the crows flying, look to see if one of the birds looks different than the crows--that bird will also be harassed, even pecked by the crows in flight and that's your hawk or owl.