[texbirds] Stalked by an Owl

From: Clay Taylor <Clay.Taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: TexBirds Posting Email <texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 18:22:27 -0500
Hi all -
Saturday morning I arrived at Hazel Bazemore County Park at 6am to begin the 
Corpus Christi CBC.   Mercifully, the gates were open, saving me a hike down 
the hill to go for Paraque, owls and rails in the pre-dawn period.

The Common Paraques were easy, as there were three different individuals 
illuminated by the headlights of my car while sitting on the roadsides toward 
the East side of the park.   I will have a later post concerning Paraque IDs.

I drove down the roadway alongside the Nueces River, noting all the 
White-tailed Deer that were hanging out in the now-lush fields (amazing what a 
little rain will do!).   I parked at the corner by the Blue barriers and 
serenaded the river environs with Barred Owl recordings.   It only took a few 
minutes of intermittent playing to get a response from right across the river.  
 In a few more minutes there were three Barred Owls talking back and forth, 
each one egging the others on to making more noise.   Off in the distance a 
Great Horned Owl boomed a few times, but his heart was not in it.  There was a 
slight breeze out of the Northeast, but not enough to really impede hearing.

I then drove over to the place where the road passes between the ponds to see 
what rails I could coax into responding.   I was fairly confident in Virginia 
and Sora, and a few years ago on the CBC I had a King Rail respond.   Of 
course, the eureka birds would have been either Black or Yellow, but that was 
too much to ask for.

I set the player on the hood of my car, turned on Virginia Rail, and walked 
about 80 feet down the road in order to get away from the proximity of the 
player and hopefully be able to determine the directions of calls.  Sure 
enough, two Virginias responded fairly quickly, and a third one a few minutes 
later.   I switched the calls to Sora, and walked back to my spot.  The wind 
was coming at my back as I faced the two ponds and the hillside.

By this time it was 6:25 or so, and while it was still fully dark, there was a 
lot of sky glow from Calallen and the nearby petro plants, so I could see 
landmarks, etc.   Suddenly a large dark owl flew past me, heading west over the 
fence line into the grassy, wet fields that actually belong to the park.   It 
went by so fast that I could not tell if it was a GHO or a Barred.

About 30 seconds later, the owl flew in from the direction of the big pond, to 
my left, gliding in about 40 feet up.   It headed right at me, and then it 
stopped and HOVERED right over me!   It looked like a huge, dark Kestrel or 
Kingfisher, silhouetted in the sky!    By the time I raised my binocular, it 
peeled away, looped around, and came back in again, but this time lower.   It 
was obviously interested in the calling rail, but MORE interested in ME!    Oh 
yes, did I mention that I was wearing Camo pants and jacket?   I had committed 
the Redneck Faux-Pas by having mis-matched camo patterns, but obviously the owl 
was trying to figure out why a big pile of leaves and brush was in the middle 
of the road, and where the heck was that rail?

It peeled off, circled around and came back to check me out again, and repeated 
the process at LEAST 5 more times.   The last approach, it was so close that in 
my 10x50 EL binocular its body totally filled up the view!   I would guess that 
it was no more than 15 feet above my head.   Wow!   I could easily see the 
owl's big dark eyes, so that took out Great Horned, and I was now trying 
desperately to make it into a Barn Owl to add to the List.   Unfortunately, the 
body looked too stout, the wings looked too wide and short for a Barn, but we 
birders are a stubborn lot, so I was trying to see if the body was streaked or 
not.   There was not enough light to see those details, so I went back to the 
car to get the spotlight.   At that point the bird turned and flew off low over 
the fields and gave me a Bonus - it flushed two Common Snipe!   Yesss!!!

I got the spotlight rigged up just as the bird returned again, this time a 
little higher off the ground.   Boy, it is tough to hold a binocular in one 
hand, a spotlight in another, and keep them both aimed at a fast-flying owl!   
After a few passes,  I was eventually able to confirm that it was a Barred Owl.

During all of this I was standing pretty motionless, and the rail tape playing 
was certainly what attracted the bird, but I have to conclude that it was 
really curious as to what the heck was that "thing" in the middle of the road.  
  While we had a good day birding the park for the CBC, the highlight came 
during the darkness.

That was one of my top CBC moments ever.


Clay Taylor
TOS Life Member
Calallen (Corpus Christi), TX
Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Clay.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>




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[texbirds] Stalked by an Owl

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