I agree Dale it's possible. You and Carolyn may have seen one as well. But a
Mottled Owl has no ear tufts and brown eyes and is equally close. It might find
Trans Pecos environs more like home than a Barred would. Either way, such owls
should not be so easily dismissed.
Fred Collins
Sent from my iPhone
On May 23, 2017, at 9:11 PM, Dale Ohl <lsdolls@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tex-Birders: I read with interest comments about Robert Becker's sighting
for Cottonwood Campground regarding the Barred Owl.
I would like to mention another undocumented sighting in the late 1990's
at Lake Balmorhea. I either no longer have the notes on the sighting or
have them buried somewhere.
Carolyn Ohl (my SIL and long-time birding accomplice) and I spent many days
birding BBNP and up to Lake Balmorhea. One day we went to L.B. (Lake
Balmorhea). We were working our way entirely around the lake which could be
done there at that time (not sure you can now.) We stopped the car what
would be on the south side of the canal in a low lying dry 'creek bed',
it's actually a little peninsula of land but it would be wet when the lake
had more water in it. I don't know if that area has been accessible often
or not, but it was then. There was an owl perched about 2/3 up in a tree
on a limb overlooking the dry 'creek bed' and started flying towards us. It
had no ear tufts but had dark eyes. It flew down fairly low next to the
car and we immediately id' it as a barred owl.
I could not see ear tufts, and it definitely had dark eyes, and it was in
exactly the habitat I had seen barred owls the years we lived in Iowa and
east Texas. I used to see them along creeks in Iowa near our house,
perched about 2/3 up a tree on a limb overlooking a pasture. It was a no
brainer for me to agree with Carolyn it was a Barred Owl.
When it was mentioned to very experienced Trans-Pecos birders, we were told
the same, there are no records for Barred Owls in the Trans-Pecos, and
intimated therefore it couldn't be one. However, to this day, we know what
we saw. Lots of birds show up in places 'where they have never been
documented' before. So who knows? Maybe tomorrow someone with a camera
or audio equipment will document a Barred Owl at Cottonwood. Wouldn't that
be great? Just because it wasn't documented, doesn't mean it wasn't there.
Dale Ohl
Canton TX
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