[Naturens] Owl Monitoring

Hi all: I completed the second of three owl monitoring routes that I do last night. I have the impression that there are fewer owls this year. I initially did my Lapland/Laconia route on April 11. The winds were supposed to drop out but they did not. There was a steady blow of between 40-45 km. Other conditions were optimal in that you could hear for miles and it was clear with good temperatures. I only heard two very distant barred owls on that night. I did a re-run of the route on April 18. The moon was bright enough to be almost daylight and one could walk around without a flashlight to see. The first five stops there were no owls at all, but I could see by the brightness of the night that habitat had been totally removed for miles beyond the road barrier left. The winds were strong during the first stop, but they died out until the last two stops where they picked up forcibly. I ended up with six barred owls of which three were seen. Last night I did my Rhodes Corner to Whynott's Settlement to Sweetland route. The winds again were supposed to drop off, but intermittently throughout the route they would gust. Most of the stops were low winds, but they seemed rather high on four of the stops. Anyhow on stop number 1, I heard a great horned owl call as soon as I got out of the vehicle. At the end I could hear begging calls of young great horned owls. On one other stop I had a barred owl and a great horned owl calling. On the last stop there were two barred owls vocal and a very vocal northern saw-whet. These numbers are down for this route and I should have heard a lot more owls. There were three stops in a row where I heard American woodcocks making a chittering call. Not the normal pent call or winnowing. James R. Hirtle LaHave