FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] GH Owl calls: Excerpt from AC Bent

[K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Don,

I heard similar calls in the woods behind our house in Jan 2004.
Originally thought young owls but after Wallace pointed out that
it would be insanely early for Great Horned Owl young --- but hey,
global warming... :-) --- I did a search and found some info in
Bent's Life Histories.  Below is part of an email I sent to the
group back then that includes the bit from Bent.

Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 10:11:42 -0500 (EST)
From: K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tennessee Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Excerpt from AC Bent


Below is an excerpt taken from the account for Great Horned Owl in
A.C. Bent's "Life Histories of N.A. Birds".  This is what I read
that lead me to believe we heard yearling GH Owls returning to their
parents for a handout.  The second paragraph describes almost exactly
what we heard.  Granted, 17 January is a good bit later than 23 October,
but... ya never know.  Haven't heard the screeching since that night
but I'm hoping to get out some more this weekend and see what else
I can find out.  I'll post what I find.

...

Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN


Excerpt from
Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey, Vol. 2
by Arthur Cleveland Bent

...

Clarence F. Stone, of Branchport, N. Y., tells me an interesting story of
a pair of young owls that followed their parents about all summer, and
even up to the latter part of October, in the vicinity of his camp. He
writes: "Almost every night during the month of June 1932, just as the
shades of night darkened the woods, two large owls, uttering harsh
screams, the like of which I had never heard, came down through the gloomy
hemlocks in the bottom of the gully and took perch on lumps of shale, or
on the dead fallen trees still clinging to the perpendicular clifFs. In
July they changed their route by coming around Chasm Lodge from the upper
backwoods of pine and hemlock, where they took perch in the lofty pines
and gave vent to rather terrifying and horrid screams. These two owl
screamers traveled together, apparently hunting, and alternately uttering
the loud, raucous screams that were evidently prompted by the urge of
gnawing hunger. Almost nightly during this month, a pair of great horned
owls came to hunt and hoot around the lodge. Invariably, a little time
later, the two screamers gradually approached the hunting area of the
hooting owls. Both the adult pair of hooters and the two screamers had two
nightly sessions, first from just at dusk to near midnight and again just
before the dawn of day."

Again, on October 20, he writes: "As it was very rainy all the fore part
of last night, the hideous screamers did not come to entertain me as
usual, but at 4:30 o'clock this morning, I was awakened by the booming
hoots of adult great horned owls, and a few minutes later I was fully
aroused when the two ferocious screamers suddenly began their harsh yowls
in the big pines over the roof of the lodge." On the evening of October 23
the four owls "went on a rampage" again, and he saw the young owls clearly
enough to identify them as great horned owls, with well-developed ear
tufts, and to see them giving their harsh screams "four to six times a
minute." And he says, in conclusion: "In this instance, at least, it seems
that the young owls of the year were yet, so late in October, partly
dependent on, or at least following, the parent great horned owls about on
their hunting excursions. At no time did I hear the adult owls utter
anything but the hooting owl language. Only the young owls of the year
shrieked the loud, harsh, blood-curdling screams. And I am inclined to
believe that these harsh cries were simply hunger screams, characteristic
of yearling great horned owls."

....
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