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Close encounter



A nice one this morning, with two Screech Owls at the Santee NWR, Cuddo
Unit.  I was running a Screech Owl tape, had run only a few calls when I saw
a gray morph sitting less than 25' directly in front of me.  I enjoyed
staring back for maybe 30 seconds until the tape quit.  I rewound, looked up
and saw a red morph landing about 5' from the gray.  Shortly the red flew
about 20' behind me, then flew to a limb about 12' behind me and stared.
Both were calling much of the time, particularly when I ran my tape again.
Sounded identical except that the tape was much louder.  I didn't call very
long, but both owls stayed put.  Finally the gray flew away, but the red was
still sitting 12' from me when I departed well over ten minutes after they
arrived.    A nice encounter.

There are a lot of Wood Duck boxes in the area, so there are lots of Screech
Owls, too.  I've had them answer a tape, but have never seen one
come--though I did once have a  Barred Owl home in--landed looking hard for
the source, probably looking for a meal.

Saw a couple of other nice birds today--two Purple Gallinules at Black
Bottom (a bay of Lake Marion in the Cuddo Unit) and two Least Bitterns, the
first I've seen in Santee.  One was at Black Bottom, the other at Potato
Creek--part of the eastern border of Cuddo.

The day's work, largely at Santee:

>From 6/11/2003 to 6/11/2003 ~ All Places ~ 53 seen

Pied-billed Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Anhinga
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Green Heron
Least Bittern
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Purple Gallinule
Common Moorhen
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Eastern Screech-Owl
Barred Owl
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird
Purple Martin
Barn Swallow
Carolina Wren
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher
Eastern Bluebird
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
European Starling
Pine Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Northern Cardinal
Blue Grosbeak
Painted Bunting
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Boat-tailed Grackle
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Orchard Oriole
House Finch


Lloyd Moon
Sumter, SC
lmoon@sc.rr.com