Twelve Owls

Eastern Screech-Owl

T wo Eastern Screech-Owls were sleeping side by side, wings touching, on a frozen Valentine’s Day morning. Their feathers were fluffed against the cold, their eyes closed, and their heads tilted down a bit as if resting their chins on their chests. It was bright and sunny outside, but inside the roost box it was peaceful and dark. They were a well-matched duo. Like most Eastern Screech-Owl pairs, they were the same age, both almost four years old. They were skilled hunters who had spent so much time together that they knew exactly what the other one was up to even when they were hunting in different parts of the woods. Now, comfortably roosting together, their shared body heat made their winter roost box warm and cozy. Suddenly they woke with a start as a loud, rhythmic hammering erupted. A Downy Woodpecker in the neighborhood had decided that this particular Wood Duck box produced the loudest sound anywhere on his territory. Several times a day he would fly in and start pounding away. The female owl, the larger and more irritable of the two, climbed to the entrance hole and stuck her head out, startling the woodpecker in mid-drum. He flew off. The sun was shining directly on the box now, warming the screech owl’s head feathers, so she stayed put, dozing a bit. Gradually her stomach started churning, and up came a pellet, which she spit out on the ground below. Most of her pellets contained the indigestible remains of just one or two mice, but last night was an exceptional hunting night, and so this was a big pellet—the leftover fur, bones, and teeth of three mice. She needed the calories after two bad nights. A huge blizzard had kept her and her mate in the box three nights ago. The following night was clear, but the winds were fierce, and she wasn’t hungry enough to face that. Her mate did go out for a little while and caught one plump mouse. He bit off the front third and swallowed it right where he killed it. Then, because the oncoming breeding season was affecting his hormone levels, he brought the rest to her. Had anyone examined the pellets they produced yesterday, they would have found half of a mouse’s bones in each. In winter, most of her pellets and those of her mate EasternScreech-Owl • 13 • 14 • E a ster n Screech-Ow l fell into their roost cavity. The bottom of this Wood Duck box was thick with them, cushioning and insulating the floor. She was much more careful not to spit pellets into her nesting cavity than into her winter roost. She wasn’t entirely satisfied with this roost. It was a Wood Duck box, rather large for their nesting requirements . Woodpecker holes and other natural cavities stay more humid and keep a more constant temperature than artificial nest boxes. Her mate kept a sharp lookout for undefended cavities on their territory, and most winters they alternated among three or even four for roosting. This year starlings had taken over the best ones. A couple weeks ago, her mate had dispatched a starling who had been roosting in a flicker hole. He had checked out the cavity and roosted in it twice since eating its former tenant. Several days ago he had even stored a couple of mice in it — a clear sign that he thought it might be a good choice for a nesting site this year. Her own rising hormone levels were making her restless. She would move into it in a few days, when they started courting in earnest. Hunkering down in a good nest cavity for a week or two seemed just the trigger she needed to start producing eggs. She and her mate had settled in this city park when they first got together almost three years before. That first year they tried to nest in a different flicker hole, but she got skittish when starlings kept trying to take over, and she finally gave up. The second year her mate found a Pileated Woodpecker hole that turned out to be ideal. They successfully raised all four chicks that year, and last year they raised five more healthy owlets in it. But a storm last fall knocked the tree down. Fortunately, this happened after the young had all fledged, and none of them happened to be roosting in it at the time...