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Home > Blogs > Birds and Butterflies > Archives > 2009 > March > 25 > Entry
Screech Owl Courtship
If you live in a neighborhood like mine, where the houses are about 20 feet apart, lawns about 1/2 acre, and you have some woods and fields nearby, chances are you have screech owls! These are our smallest Ohio owls that stay here all year. They love eating bugs in the summertime but will eat rodents during the winter. They will even cache rodents in their roosting tree cavities and allow them to freeze. Then when they want a snack, they will incubate them to defrost them and gobble up some meat!
Right now is a great time to turn off the television and games, push the kids out into the backyard, and listen for the screech owl’s vocalizations. One resembles a horse whinny. The other is a soft trill; some folks would even say they sound like some electronic phones. Once you hear them, keep watching, because now, you might get to witness the incredible site of copulation, where the male rests on the female’s back to exchange the precious genetic material. Just two days ago, I witnessed this in my front yard, just about 20 feet from a busy throughway, with kids running beneath them. These owls are used to such activity. They have to. With our human behaviors of development, the only way for them to survive is to adapt. Lucky for the screech owls; they are able to.
If you’d like a good chance to see a screech owl, come out to Hills and Dales MetroPark, Twin Oak Shelter, this Saturday, March 28th from 8:30-9:30pm. We’ll hike out into the woods and attempt to call one in. So far, our chances of seeing one are about 90%! Go to metroparks.org for more information.
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By Doug
March 27, 2009 10:20 AM | Link to this
Wow, that was a lucky sight to see. Good thing you hang out in your yard, you were rewarded by witnessing a natural wonder. Thanks for sharing.