There’s an old saying that “ninety percent of success in life is just a matter of showing up.” Well, success in spotting owls in the daytime takes more than showing up – it takes a little bit of luck, and skill, as well.
By Bill Lawyer
There’s an old saying that “ninety percent of success in life is just a matter of showing up.” Well, success in spotting owls in the daytime takes more than showing up – it takes a little bit of luck, and skill, as well.
Of course, the odds are better if your house happens to have its backyard immediately adjacent to the wooded wetland by the island on Playland Lake.
Habitats like these are likely to attract a variety of owl species – enough that their night-time calls might make you feel as if you’ve moved to a high-density population of those nocturnal predators – owl city!
Over my many years as director of the Greenburgh Nature Center, I had numerous opportunities to spot owls during the daytime. Most of these sightings occurred in the forest, when the owls were being “mobbed” by crows. And the species of owl was invariably the great horned.
Why? According to naturalists, great horned owls often rob the nests of crows at night, so, in the daytime, the crows gang up and drive the owls out of the neighborhood. Sort of like another other old saying, from the movies: “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.” You could hear the “mobbing” from hundreds of yards away.
My only other experience with a great horned owl during the daytime came about when we got a call from the Edgemont High School grounds maintenance staff. A great horned owl had managed to get caught in a soccer net that was left out on the playing field overnight. We surmised that the predator had been swooping along after a field mouse or rabbit and had not spotted the netting until it was too late. The bird was so tangled up that we had to cut the netting out before we could extricate it. The owl, showing no respect or appreciation, tried to bite us the whole time.
The other daytime owl sightings I’ve had involved screech owls. Back at Edgemont again – this time by the entrance to the gym — students reported what they thought was a “dead baby owl.” It turned out to be a small, healthy but somewhat disoriented adult screech owl that was quietly roosting there until nightfall. We shooed it away to a less heavily trafficked shrub in nearby woods.
My most memorable sighting occurred when we rented a cabin on the Hudson River, near Saratoga Springs. To be honest, it was more dusk than daytime, but still not dark. I was walking along when something hit me on the top of my head. I thought it was a rock or nut, until it happened again. I looked up and saw a screech owl dive-bombing after me. It turned out that the adult owl was trying to get me away from its nest in a nearby tree that had three owlets in it. Needless to say, we gave the tree wide berth in the evenings after that.
Which brings us back to Rye’s owl population. Last week, I got a call from Ellen and Howard Deixler who told me they spotted a great horned owlet perched in the crotch of a tree down by the wetland. It started with their sighting an adult owl landing there, and then realizing, after the adult left, that a much smaller owlet was abandoned.
Howard got out his high-powered bird spotting scope and zoomed in on the baby. He deserves a gold medal in birdwatching, because the owlet completely blended in with the surrounding tree. It looked like a baby bandit, with a mask-like strip of dark feathers across the eyes.
Three days later I went back, dressed for the mucky wetland conditions to have a look. I was excited to see that there were in fact two owlets, both sitting in the bottom of the hole in the snag — well camouflaged. As I approached, a parent owl flew up from a nearby tree and perched over on the island. It hooted as I got near, but didn’t, thank goodness, attack me.
Wildlife biologists have determined that great horned owls are among the earliest breeders, with an average incubation time of 33 days. It takes another six weeks before they emerge from their nest to roost on a nearby branch. So, it’s not surprising to see owlets “out and about” by mid-April.
It takes another month or so before they can fly, and even then they’re not really out of the nest very much as they beg for food from their parents until the fall. Their diet often includes strips of skunk meat, so a good way to locate an owl nest is to follow your nose.
Chances are you will never encounter an owl in the daytime, if you don’t get outside and look for them right in your backyard.
