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Barred Owl -Way Cool 131st Yard Bird



     I had always presumed when I saw the first Barred Owl or Great Horned 
Owl in my yard, that I would be alerted to their presence by American Crows 
and/or Blue Jays together with a myriad of smaller passerines. I was wrong. 
As I was preparing to put up my last bracket for another tube feeder Saturday 
afternoon, I heard a Cooper's Hawk rip out an alarm call in the next door 
neighbor's yard. After about four such calls I decided to grab my binoculars 
from inside the house to see what was up. As I approached the neighbor's yard 
from behind a row of hemlocks, the Cooper's Hawk flew up into an oak tree but 
I could not see why it was so excited. Then out of the neighbor's yard glided 
a large bird, which landed in a hickory tree behind our house and I was 
blessed with a magnificent full frontal view of a Barred Owl (yard bird #131 
and yard species #103 for the year). That lasted only a few seconds, when the 
Cooper's Hawk chased after the owl joined by a heretofore silent buteo and 
they all three landed in the wooded area to the south of the house. I 
attemted to get another look at the owl, but apparently spooked it, whereupon 
the buteo attacked the owl in midair striking the owl's back with an audible 
"thunk". The buteo then landed in another tree in the currently dried up 
marsh and started calling loudly, so that I could both hear and see that it 
was a Red-shouldered Hawk. Quite a visual and auditory display of raptors. 
The Red-shouldered Hawk visited three more times today taking a small 
salamander out of the back lawn and gulping it down.
     Friday, I had my first Winter Wren of the year. The wren came so close 
at one point, as it foraged near the ground, that I could not focus my 
Swarovski 10x50s on it. That is a drawback of having more powerful 
binoculars. 
     Surprisingly, I did not record my first Eastern Phoebe of the year until 
today bringing my calendar year record for the yard to 104. The Winter Wren 
broke my previous record of 101 set in 1999. I guess that will have to be my 
consolation for not being able to go to Wings Over Water this year. Cheers.

Steve Tracy
Gastonia, NC