Western Screech Owl

I walked to Walnut Canyon with my new camera, hoping to get video or photos of the Great Horned Owls, which I hadn't heard in a few days. We were having a heat wave, and the temperature was probably still about 80 degrees F, at 9:00pm. Walnut Canyon currently looks more like a Halloween scene than a thriving forest. Most of the Southern California Walnut Trees have superficially died from the 5 year drought, but this year, after receiving over 18" of rain, are heavily leafing out, with thick green growth low on their trunks, and bare branches poking out high above. In spring they had masses of flower structures hanging down, and now in summer are dropping numerous dark brown walnuts.

While photographing Narrow-leaf Milkweed flowers on the open hillside, I heard barking coming from high in the Walnut Woodland. It sounded like a small dog giving a high-pitched "yip", every 3 or 4 seconds. The barking grew louder as I made my way along the trail, aiming my flashlight at the ground to see where I was walking. At the top of the trail in the dense forest I walked squarely into a spider web, which caused me to flail my arms, wiping web off my face. (I think I also made a sound like "eeewwwwww!!!") At the instant I jumped and began waving my arms, I heard a branch crackle in the vegetation nearly touching my head. I wondered "did I cause that sound, or did something just move on a branch near my head?"

Now pointing my flashlight higher to see & avoid more webs, I watched a pale spider, whose web I had just ruined, running as fast as it could for the shelter of some Toyon leaves. The barks were still comiing from directly in front of me, higher in the trees. I walked onward, aiming my light into the trees, camera ready in the other hand. I whispered to myself "it's right in front of me", then barking started in the Toyon tree behind me, where the spider had been. These barks were louder, a little lower pitched, at times almost growling, similar to the sounds squirrels make when alarmed. I turned, switched my camera to video, and walked toward the sound, as quietly I could, through the crunchy dried grass, leaves & twigs. Pushing my light deeper past the Toyon branches, the source of the yips came into light- a Western Screech Owl! He was adorable- a bit larger than my hand, compact but broad & rounded, mottled & streaked shades of gray, with large yellow eyes. I could see the feathers on his throat move when he barked. He tolerated my light for a few minutes, then flew across the trail, a few feet away. I resumed searching for the higher voice, again yipping in another tree, and he quickly returned to the Toyon and continued barking, drawing me back to his tree. My guess is this was the male, distracting me from finding a nest & his female. As I left, they could be heard yipping in the Walnut Woodland.

I got one video of 2 minutes, and two videos of 1 minute each. The owl is hard to see, but the sound is good. Early in the 2 minute video, 2 overlapping voices can be heard, yipping. Later the one owl's yips become 2 syllables, like "yip-uh". I don't yet know how to link video to this page.

Posted on July 15, 2017 11:36 PM by crayonsss