I was able to spend some time tonight observing the Western Screech-owls
nesting in my yard and thought others might be interested.
For the past 3 nights like clockwork an owl, I presume the female, has come
out of the cavity and perched at its entrance at 5:34PM. Initially it
perches quite low and has its eyes closed and over the next 30 minutes it
works its way further up until it is fully in view, and its eyes gradually
open and get wider. Over the 5 minutes or so before flying out it acts
fully awake and is looking about. What I presume is the male comes out of
a dense tree about 10 meters away and perches on a branch nearby and after
it calls a few times, the female flies out and lands a few feet from him.
They call to each other a few times (I just love their duets) and then they
copulate. This lasts only a few seconds and is accompanied by the male
continuously flapping its wings, and then the male flew off.
Photos of the female shortly before she flew out are at
http://andyfrank.blogspot.com/
Now the question. When they nested in our yard before, both times they
were both gray morphs. This time they are both brown morphs. Do they
selectively mate with a partner the same color morph? And if not, is it
known whether one color predominates?
Andy Frank
Portland
