Eastern Screech Owl 12/14/09
Driving up the NH coast road this weekend out of the corner of my eye I saw a piece of wood move in a way wood shouldn’t move and came to a screeching halt on the shoulder. The sun had set and the light was already gone but I killed the engine and turned on the flashers. Scooched into the passenger seat, rolled down the window, and started clicking. The wood moved again, blinked even. It was an owl, an Eastern Screech Owl! Not such a rare bird in the east, but who ever sees them? How often do you see any wild owl? These wonderful and the littlest of the eared owls come in two color morphs, a bright rusty red and the grey phase of this bird. He or she (anybody’s guess) is about 8″ tall. A good candidate for my 2011 calendar. Fetched near Odiorne Point in Rye, NH.
Rich Brady said,
January 25, 2010 @ 3:48 pm
Wow. Best picture of this little guy (girl?) we have seen yet. Also, yours is the only one on the internet with its eyes open.
We were also driving by on Saturday morning and saw the seven photographers stacked upon each other waiting for the owl to do something.
Beautiful photo. Well done.
admin said,
January 25, 2010 @ 4:12 pm
Thanks Rich, I discovered it same day as Len Medlock who announced it to the NH Birdlist on the 12th (I went to report it and found he had beat me by a couple hours). If you spot it at dusk or on an overcast day you can find its eyes open. Sunshine’s just too bright. I’ve been by a number of times since, it disappears into that hole if anyone gets too close. There’s also an unconfirmed report of a Long-eared Owl in the area of Odiorne closer to the ocean.
v.nichols said,
February 1, 2010 @ 9:24 am
i am so thrilled to see each birdaday… lived on refuges for a long time and never got enough of “birding”….thanks for the beautful pictures and the notes..
v.nichols said,
February 14, 2010 @ 3:28 pm
the snowy owl picture is gorgeous…many years ago,on CrabOrchardRefuge in southern Illinois, my family and i were driving on a back road lned with a canopyof trees when a snowy flew in front of the car abou five feet over the hood of the car and as we slowed to watch, it flew a straight line in front of us for a good mile..what a thrill for us and the children who were young then..none of us ever forgot the wonderful treat of seeing it up close ….