Last week, I was hiking in the White Mountains when a small bird went off the road in front of us, flew a short distance and landed on a low branch, hunting us.
We were in a dense fir forest, the light was dim and the air was so calm that you can hear a pin drop, but the bird was flying silently.The bird was small, but had a disc-shaped face and the intense binocular look of an owl.It was difficult to distinguish it in a soft low voice – all we could see was its smallness, the eyes of some, a brown back with white spots and a white “y” between the eyes.
The size, color and this “and” have turned it into a little northern owl. The little owl is the smallest owl in New England … this one was too small to be one of the larger communes like a striped owl or a giant horned owl. The only other small owls imaginable are the eastern spotted owl that does not have the apparent facial disc and the boreal owl, which is very rare in this state, so their appearances are limited in winter.
The owl, on the other hand, is not an unusual resident, probably all year circular here.They are very secretive in their movements, so whether they migrate or not and the extent of their migration is still little known, however, it is known.some migrate south or to lower altitudes in winter, while others remain in a year-round circular position (Cornell Lab).
The saw owls are small, up to 8 inches long with a wingspan of 19 inches, making them about the length of a robin.Despite their small length, they are ferocious predators.Their main prey is mice, yet they attack, a variety of other animals: listed squirrels and juvenile squirrels and other small mammals, a variety of birds and insects, even other small owls.
The preferred nesting habitat of little Nyctale is the coniferous forest near a river or swamp.They like to nest in holes in the past dug through other birds (such as flickering or beaks), but they also use nest boxes.recommends building a nest box for the small owl saw if you live in a properly wooded area.Your NestWatch (www.nestwatch.org) site is great. In addition to providing detailed plans and data on nest box construction, you can also enroll in NestWatch, a national nest tracking program designed to track the status and trends of bird reproductive biology.
The female probably chooses the nesting site, but recently to modify it.You’ll put your eggs in the rubble at the back of the cavity.The nests of the small saw owl start fairly well, but over time the chicks have taken time off, there is regularly such a thick layer of rotten prey, faeces and regurgitated granules that the nesting site is not reused the following year.Therefore, if you install a nest box and are lucky enough for the owls to use it, it’s a smart concept to leave it blank every winter and load new wood chips.
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a little owl in the wild, so be lucky to have noticed this one.They have some calls, a non-unusual buzzing and screaming call.It is idea that his call comes from the resemblance of one of the raucous cries to the sound that is emitted when a saw is sharpened (sharpened).I’ve only noticed it once. When my children were young they played in the woods and came through an owl sitting on the forest floor, brought me there, it was an owl (but adult), when we called the wildlife rescue center to find out how to fix it, they told us to let it go.When you take a chance, this owl’s maximum non-unusual defense is to stand still until the risk goes away.We went back and he was gone.
Susan Pike, researcher and professor of environmental sciences and biology at St. Thomas Aquinas, welcomes her concepts for long-term chronicles.You can reach her at [email protected] more of her Nature News columns online at Seacoastonline.com and pikes-hikes.com, and stay with her on Instagram @pikeshikes.
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