"Disclaimer: No owls were harmed in the creation of this recording"
If you listen to my reaction it should be obvious that I had no idea the ow=
l
was there. The bird was actually about 50 meters away from me, well behind
the cardinal I was recording. They do 'flush' from time to time if they
happen to be in a tree that's near the trail I'm walking on (I'm a caretake=
r
of a nature preserve in central New Jersey). As for the crows, this mobbing
behavior is totally normal, and is also carried out by Blue Jays (which you
can also hear in the recording). For all the crows and blue jays we have on
our property, the fact that the great horned owls are doing well is a
testament to their superiority in matters of territorial claims.
That said, harassment of any owls, such as those at winter roosts (which we
do get here as well) like Saw-whet, and Long-eared is something we take
extremely seriously. Rest assured we're not purposefully influencing the
behavior of any birds (maybe with the exception of attracting birds to our
feeders with seeds and suet).
Cheers
David
On 2/13/07, Aaron Ximm <> wrote:
>
> On 2/12/07, Lou Judson < <loujudson%40mac.com>> wrote:
> >
> > Were any owls harmed in the creation of this? Seems we are there to
> > observe, not to rile them up!
> >
> > On Feb 12, 2007, at 7:35 PM, David La Puma wrote:
> > > I was out recording this morning with my Sennheiser ME66 and my new
> > > (to me)
> > > Marantz PMD670 when I flushed a Great Horned Owl. What followed was a=
n
> > > all-out mobbing by a flock of American Crows.
>
> Listening to the recording and reading the account I'm 99.999% positive
> David means *accidentally* flushed! For the record.
>
> Speaking of Great Horned Owls, my wife and I have been going to the park
> on
> top of our hill here in San Francisco every day the past three or so week=
s
> to (quietly) view a pair that have been rotating trees... the hawks and
> kestrels are regulars, but I've only ever infrequently *heard* these owls
> in
> the city, it's such a wonder to get to observe them at close range every
> day
> stretching and scratching and sleeping etc...!
>
> It's the time of year the crows on the hill are doing their crazy
> mating-acrobatics for us too, so this recording felt very familiar!
> Yesterday when it was blue-skied we watched a dozen 'mob' a redtail that
> was
> turning some tricky moves to shake them off...
>
> best
> aaron
>
> --
> <aaron.ximm%40gmail.com>
> quietamerican.org
> oneminutevacation.org
>
> 83% happy
> 9% disgusted
> 6% fearful
> 2% angry
>
>
>
>
--
David A. La Puma
Ph.D. Candidate
Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, & Natural Resources
Plant Physiology Building
1 College Farm Road
Rutgers University
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1582
Phone: 732-932-3313
email 1:
email 2:
lab website: http://rci.rutgers.edu/~jlockwoo
personal website: http://www.woodcreeper.com
photo website: http://www.flickr.com/photos/woodcreeper
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
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