I haven't seen many in my life, but most of the ones I have seen are in
South Texas where they seem to be relatively common. In those cases I have
spooked them in broad day light out of low typical south Texas scrub, such
as dense thickets of mesquite. In both cases they did not appear to be
hiding deep in the brush, merely perched near the edge, on sunny days,
mid-day. I would say perched up, moving around in an exposed barren tree,
might constitute a slightly less normal occurrence. Can't speak to the
reason, you maybe right. However, nocturnal owls are at times more likely
to be active on overcast days with low light, which seems to be all we've
had recently. If that were the case that day, perhaps that could be a
possible explanation. Since no one else had publicly replied, figured I
would put my 2 cents in. Cheers.
Good Birding,
Michael Autin, Louisville, KY
On Wed, Dec 7, 2022, 4:05 PM Lyneart <lyneart@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Barn Owls are almost completely nocturnal. That makes an observation I
just made a puzzle. As I was about to head to the shop for an afternoon
glassing & sanding session, I spotted something fairly big perched oddly in
a tree just up Wash Gunn Road. It was a Barn Owl. It kept shifting around
as if having difficulty arriving at a comfortable perching position. Once
it worked its way down into the tree a bit, it behaved as if it was settled
in. I got out my scope and took many images through the scope. I walked
beneath the tree it was perched in and took images of it from another
angle. A Red-tailed Hawk flew over as I was observing the owl. Had
something disturbed owl at its normal day roost? The hawk? A Horned Owl? A
raccoon? My forensic skills are too slight to solve the case.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S123606439
Frank Lyne
frank@xxxxxxxxxxx - near Dot in Logan County, KY
