Saturday Owl Prowl

This past weekend Eddie Giles led his annual Owl Prowl for the Brookline Bird Club. The goal of the trip is to "find by sight or sound all 8 species of owl wintering in Massachusetts." It is certainly not an easy prospect, and although we really wish to stop and enjoy the owls that we do find, there is a lot of ground to cover, and especially if we are trying to include Barn Owl which means a trip the Felix Neck Sanctuary on Martha's Vineyard - so if you are going to go for them, you need to stop whatever other birding you are doing by mid-afternoon and get down to the ferry. This was the first year in several that we were going to go for it.

Paul and Diana picked us up at 4:15am and after meeting the group at 5am (we usually would've started earlier but reports of rain and wind made it pointless to start earlier) we all headed up to the campground in Salisbury State Park in hopes of finding the Long-eared Owl that is sporadically found there, as well as an early morning Short-eared Owl, and Snowy Owl. A quick stop along the way found us straining to hear the very distant hoots of a Barred Owl. At the campground we did not find Long- or Short-eared Owl, but were treated to great looks at a Snowy Owl that was hanging around one of the parking lots. Interestingly, if came to one puddle and sloshed around in it for a while.

Although almost all the birders and photographers that were there were pretty respectful of the owl and kept their distance, there was one photog that kept racing from lot to lot whenever the bird flew, trying to get closer and closer, and at one point he drove right at the bird, which only flushed when he got about 15ft away from it - what a complete moron!!! I can only imagine that he didn't see it due to it's great camouflage when against the snow, but still- this guy was a complete idiot.

We then did a quick run down Plum Island as somebody had spotted a Long-eared Owl there, but we were unable to re-locate it. Next we headed to Hamilton, MA where Eddie had been in touch with a gentleman who recently bought a new home and had been hearing Barred Owls calling in his backyard and discovered where they'd been roosting. Upon arriving, a Barred hooted on cue, and some participants checked out some of the trees, but the bird was not to be found. Heading south we stopped in Burlington, where Marj Rines had recently found a Northern Saw-whet Owl, and was gracious enough to relocate it for our group:
From there we traveled on to Lexington, where a red-morph Eastern Screech-Owl made us wait for a while before putting in an appearance.

Our next stop was at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, where at least one Great Horned Owl has been roosting in a visible location in "the Dell." Pamela and I had seen this bird the previous weekend, and when we walked up to the spot, it was in the same place - an easy tick for the group.
At this point in the afternoon, we were feeling the pressure of having to keep a schedule to catch the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. We caravaned from Cambridge, MA to Woods Hole and caught the 3:15 ferry. No owls to be seen on the crossing, but we saw thousands of Common Eider and just as we were leaving the dock, several people caught sight of a drake King Eider. Thanks to some research by Diana, we had made plans to have a taxi service pick us up and bring us to Felix Neck Sanctuary, which to my knowledge is the only place in Massachusetts where you can see Barn Owls. They have two pairs on the property, and Eddie had arranged for us to be there "after ours" on hopes of seeing the birds. There are two Barn Owl boxes on the sanctuary, with a pair of birds in each - one in the middle of a field which you can see from the entrance road, and one in the dormer of the nature center. There was quite a bit of discussion of which box to watch - the one in the field was pretty distant, but if the birds flew out, you would be able to follow them longer in flight. The one on the building was closer and there were places to be out of sight, but it was also adjacent to trees, so if the birds didn't fly out and perch, you'd lose sight of them immediately. Everybody decided for themselves which box to watch (with a 50/50 split in the group). Those who stayed near the nature center box had a brief look at one bird as it exited the box. Those who watched the box in the field, saw nothing more than a brief appearance at the hole in barely any light (I know because I was one of them - not something that I would consider a sighting) At least a few people had a glimpse of the other bird so it could go on the trip list.

In the ed, we totaled 6 of out 8 species seen/heard on the day - not too bad for an owl prowl in Massachusetts.