owls

Sometime in the middle of the night my wife woke me up with the news that there were owls hooting in the woods just north of the house! They were Great Horned Owls -- our premier hoot owls -- and there were two sets of hoots, one higher pitched than the other. The difference in pitch would indicate a male and a female, perhaps a courting pair (the female is the one with a higher-pitched hoot). Owls nest in the winter and they begin calling in the fall which, for many birds begins in mid-August.

Great Horned Owls are a Pine Barrens bird and they have never been common here by the shore. I did hear a male-female duet once before (in the last year or so) but they did not appear to nest in the vicinity. Great Horned Owls need three things: (1) an existing nest they can remodel, (2) maturing woodlands, and (3) enough prey items to feed themselves and their chicks. We actually have both: crow and squirrel nests for (1), enough woodlands to satisfy (2) and, for (3) squirrels, young Raccoons and some smaller mammals as well as some good-sized birds like Wild Turkey, Flicker and Red-bellied Woodpecker. Enough to satisfy any owl's appetite I would think

Eric Salzman