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screech owl (red phase), woodcocks



When Sally Coburn held a going-out-of-business sale at Everything for the
Birds in Asheville before Christmas, we picked up a Screech Owl box, which
I modified by adding a perch just below the hole.  Esther and I put it up a
couple of weeks ago on the south side of a mature oak tree, not far from
our carport.

As we pulled in after church early this afternoon, a red-phase Eastern
Screech Owl was sitting inside the box, his/her face filling the entrance
hole, basking in the sun's rays.

I took a few pictures (I'm notorius for poor exposures), and we'll hope for
some good slides.  A little later in the afternoon, we heard chicakadees
and wrens fussing near the box, and, sure enough, the little guys were
mobbing the owl, which appeared totally unconcerned.  A couple of
nuthatches (one Red-breasted) joined in the clamor.

Seeing the other posts about woodcocks reminded me that I failed to post a
message after Elisha Mitchell Audubon's woodcock walk at Jackson Park in
Hendersonville a week ago Sunday.  Despite rain and cold breezes, we saw
three to five birds.  One we captured in a flashlight beam on the ground,
and nearly everyone got good looks.  Because of low clouds at dusk, we also
saw two of the birds silhouetted at the top of their mating flight, almost
hovering while they did that odd chatter that's apparently a combination of
vocalizations and wing/tail noise.  A great walk, marred only slightly by
the deputy sheriff who, blue lights flashing, stopped us as we were driving
away.  Park is open to 9 p.m., we violated no law or regulation, but
somehow our behavior looked suspicious.  The woodcock were seen in an
overgrown field just north of ballfield 8.

cheers,

Len Pardue, Asheville NC