A parliament of owls working out an eleventh-hour deal to keep the forest from shutting down...?
Or maybe a failed attempt by the stakeholders in an owl love triangle to resolve, at long last, the age-old question of who cooks for whom? The female owl could just be going through some Jane Austen stuff right now; a first-year bird who's still on the fence about whom to pair up with. Jason Frank Ortonville On Thu, Mar 7, 2024 at 7:43 AM Kyle Te Poel <kyle.tep...@gmail.com> wrote: > This morning I saw two Barred Owls on the ground. From a distance of a few > hundred feet, even with binoculars, I couldn't make out great detail about > what was going on, but I presumed it was a territorial dispute and that > perhaps one of the owls was being attacked. Or, perhaps one owl caught some > prey and the other wanted it. But the seemingly aggressive behavior was not > continuous; it would start and stop. Over the course of about 15-20 > minutes, this went on--lots of owls on backs, flapping wings, interspersed > with moments where they'd stop, sometimes face each other, sometimes hunker > down and get hard to spot, then sit up a bit taller, then physically > interact again. Most of the time, one or both of the owls were vocal as > well (usually the very high pitched wail). At some point, a third one flew > in (but did not land near the other two), but I did not see if it landed > nearby or continued on. Neither of the two owls on the ground paid it any > obvious attention. > > I perused my bird behavior books, and many owl-based websites, and didn't > find anything specifically describing what I saw (in fact, and much to my > surprise, even my Stokes Guide to Bird Behavior repeatedly states "not much > is known" about various Barred Owl activity). > > Eventually, both of the owls that were engaged with each other on the > ground flew away, in the same direction, and moments later one was heard > giving its typical who-cooks...call. Not sure what happened with the third > owl that had flown in. > > As to what exactly was going on, I'm left not fully certain and would > gladly hear any input from anyone who's witnessed anything similar. I > assume the birds were not likely to be mating on the ground. I also assume > that a fight would not result in both birds flying off together (or what > appeared to be "together"), or taking "timeouts" during the act wherein > both birds were just apparently relaxed and disengaged before eventually > continuing with the tussle. > > Any thoughts? > > Kyle Te Poel > Stillwater Township, MN > > ---- > General information and guidelines for posting: > https://moumn.org/listservice.html > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > > During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social > distancing, and continue to bird responsibly. > ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.
