SPRINGHOUSE FARM JOURNAL
By Heather Lovett
I’ve been taking the same morning walk for so many years now that I know most of its features by heart. I could point out the damp, shady places where trout lilies bloom in April, for instance, or the ragged line of trees where indigo buntings are likely to nest next summer. But nothing in nature is entirely predictable, so I was taken by surprise one cold winter morning when I came upon a small owl lying by the side of the roadthe victim, most likely, of an incident with a passing car.
I was saddened by its death, of course, but pleased at the rare opportunity to see an owl up close in the daylight. The bird was exquisitely beautiful, with a perfect blend of adaptive and aesthetic featuresthe kind of design that makes the human body seem lumbering and graceless by comparison.
Its underparts and feet were clothed in fluffy white, and the coloring on its back and wings was a glowing coppery red, indicating a "red morph" eastern screech owl (there is a gray form as well). Black markings outlined the owl’s round face and ran through the breast and wing feathers in symmetrical streaks.
At eight inches long with a 22-inch wing span, screech owls are among the smallest North American owls, and although common, they are strictly nocturnal and rarely seen. During the day they hide in tree cavities or assume a posture that helps them blend in with their surroundingssitting absolutely still, they pull their feathers in tight, close their large yellow eyes, and raise their ear tufts in a masterful imitation of a tree branch.
I knew there were owls in the vicinity because I’d heard their eerie nighttime callsbut not, oddly enough, the call of a screech owl. Most people are familiar the deep hooting of a great-horned owl (if only from movie soundtracks), and I’d recently learned to recognize the harsh, blood-curdling screams of barn owls. Screech owls, however, make a different kind of noisenot a screech, as you might expect, but a soft, mournful whinny like the neighing of a ghostly horse.
To learn more about screech owls I turned to the Internet, where I found a wealth information both instructive and entertaining. The most detailed profile came from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, but there were also home pages with photos of screech owls peeking out of backyard trees, plans for owl nesting boxes, and sites devoted to various nature centers and zoos, including the Screech Owl Sanctuary in Cornwall, England. (The British are positively dotty about their birds. Type in just about any species and you’ll find U.K. bird sanctuaries and foundations and chatty newsletters with names like "The Owly News.")
Screech owls are not native to Great Britain, and I soon realized the Screech Owl Sanctuary is so named because it is owned and operated by Carolyn Screech. Carolyn was smitten at a early age when her family adopted a pair of orphaned owl nestlings, and as fate would have it, she later met and married a man named Tom Screech. The Screeches now care for and rehabilitate all kinds of owls, including a western screech owl from America.
My favorite owl site by far is Chris’s Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box Cam. The enterprising Chris W. Johnson has outfitted a birdhouse in Texas with a miniature camera that spies on a nesting screech owl 24 hours a day. The best viewing is at night, when the infrared-lit scene inside the box is most visible (and when most of the action takes place).
Looking at highlights from previous nights, you can see the male screech owl bringing a variety of foods to the nesting female, including mice, moths, geckos (this is Texas, remember!), and on one occasion, a cedar waxwinga bird only slightly smaller than the owl. There are mini-dramas when starlings invade the box, and cozy domestic scenes of male and female roosting together, the male on a rung above the female.
Screech owls ordinarily take over abandoned woodpecker holes, but like many other cavity-nesters they will also use birdhouses built to accommodate their needs. They’ve been known to occupy compartments in purple martin houses, unbothered by their martin neighbors. (I’d worry if I were the purple martins.)
According to "The Complete Birdhouse Book," a screech owl nest box should be about eight inches square and 18 inches high at the back, with an entrance hole of two and a half to four inches in diameter, ten to twelve inches above the floor. The owl is more likely to accept the box if it is placed in or at the edge of woods, mounted five to 20 feet up a tree or pole.
As Chris’s web site confirms, screech owls have a varied diet depending on what’s available in the area. They will eat birds, insects, fish, worms, lizards, amphibians, and small mammals; and will stash uneaten prey in their nesting cavity for future meals. In the Southwest, screech owls have been known to keep small live snakes in the nesting litter, presumably because the snakes feed on bothersome parasites (or so scientists speculate).
The female is in charge of the eggs (typically four), and the male brings her food during her confinement. Incubation begins as soon as the first egg is laid, and they hatch successively, resulting in broods with different-sized offspring. After leaving the nest in about four weeks, the fuzzy fledglings can sometimes be seen lined up on a tree branch stairstep-style, from the shortest to the tallest. The parents continue to feed them for another two months or so before they are truly independent.
Screech owls are largely monogamous, and I hope the poor owl I found by the side of the road had not yet formed a pair bond. Unfortunately, the roadside is where nature and automobiles sometimes collide, so my "finds" are often casualties.
I was grateful for the chance to study the owl up close in the daylight, but I would much rather see a living owl in the distance at dusk. Given a choice, I would even settle for hearing the soft whinnying call of a screech owl late at night, for the true miracles of nature are often the ones we never see.
References:
Kaufman, Kenn. "Lives of North American Birds." New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
Stokes, Donald and Lillian. "The Complete Birdhouse Book." Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1990.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, http://birds.cornell.edu/
Chris’s Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box Cam, http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/
Screech Owl Sanctuary, www.ukattraction.com/west-country/screen-owl.htm
Heather Lovett is a resident of Hopewell Township.

