October 2008
Out and About with Owls
by Craig Springer
Bird song usually isn’t associated with autumn, and rightfully so since spring is the time when all things on earth are renewed. October is a fulcrum to winter, tilting the year forward. The nights grow longer, the shadows grow longer, and the birds have gone south—most of them, anyway.
Granted, New Mexico is no Costa Rica, but it has its own blessings, like great views and dark skies at night. While you are spying the stars you just might hear some of New Mexico’s birds that usually go unseen—owls.
It seems contrary to the season, but one of several species of owls in New Mexico is getting ready to start a family. As snow swirls on mountains and communities, remarkably, great horned owls are nesting on eggs for spring delivery. They nest sooner than other species of birds that fly to warmer weather.
Several owl species, such as the great horned owl, make the vast, rural land of New Mexico their home.
Great Horned Owls
Probably the most well-known of all the owls is the great horned owl. Open a children’s book, turn on the television, and you will usually see this species of owl. It is the icon for wisdom in folk culture, he’s Woodsy Owl, and sometimes bespectacled in caricature, sporting a mortar board. The great horned owl makes a living by taking up housekeeping most places where there is enough food, perch trees and nesting cover.
Great horned owls are adaptable nesters, but like most owls, they prefer cavities to nest in. They take to tight places out of the way to protect and raise a brood. Put up a box atop an old piñon in thick wooded areas and they will come.
Great horned owls nest earlier than other species of birds, and that gives them a distinct advantage in survival. Their tendency to start a family early could very well explain their wide distribution. They are found as far away as Alaska to Brazil, live in suburbs and the wilderness, and nest on anything from cactus to fir trees.
In our neck of the New Mexico woods, a scrappy piñon suits them fine. Town lots with a mulberry or a sycamore may be all the owls need to take up nesting. Most other birds of prey start nesting several months later. By mid-winter, great horned owls across the region are most likely nesting on a pair of eggs. Sadly, one of the two owlets will not live past its first year. They may fall prey to foxes, weasels, raccoons, and maybe even bobcats.
Another advantage great horned owls hold over other raptors is diet. Simply put, these owls will eat just about anything from grasshoppers and mice, to rabbits. While they do hunt some during daylight, make no mistake, they are nocturnal. The dish-shaped disks around their large eyes capture light and sound. Their eyes are fixed in the socket, meaning in order to look sideways, up or down, they must turn their head—but they can move their head completely around to the back.
Research in feeding habits shows these birds hunt mostly in two distinct periods, 10:00 p.m. to midnight, and again from about 4:00 a.m. to dawn. On silent wings they slip from their perch and pounce on unsuspecting prey they clinch in their powerful talons. Small mammals dominate their diet, which they hunt from perches where meadows edge against the woods.
There is a lot of this habitat in New Mexico and great horned owls are fairly common here. Great horned owls are territorial and will defend their home turf against others of their kind. A pair of great horned owls defend as much as 35 or more acres.
To listen for owls, look for a large tree in a forested area near a meadow. Be quiet and listen for the distinctive to-hoo-hoo-hoo, to-hoo-hoo. It is recommended to scout in the day light first. Since owls swallow small prey hole, the parts they can not digest, like fur and bones, are regurgitated in "pellets" about the size of a spool of thread but slightly smaller. Find a frequent perch and you could find scores of pellets. Go back after dark and you just might hear the owls up close.
Barn Owls
Barn owls are also local year-round residents in New Mexico. Their haunting call is not easily forgotten. It is a raspy and horrid screech. Their monkey-shaped face and small black eyes, surrounded with white-to-tawny brown colors really stand out in the bird world. They have a sleepy, sad part-bird, part-monkey look. Their upper body parts are finely speckled with a mottled tail that is marked with three or four black bars. Their legs are long and feathered, and while standing, the wings reach beyond the tail.
Barn owls not only see well at night, but their hearing is extremely acute. These birds can swoop on a mouse in total darkness by sound alone with unerring accuracy.
Seeing them in the wild is very rare. So secretive and silent are these birds, that most sightings take place as shadows slipping through a meadow in silver moonlight. The name, barn owl, comes from their tendency to nest in man-made structures, like old barns and sheds, mine shafts and wells.
When the light plays in the forests and fields, the deer mice scurry around and kangaroo rats bounce about. That is when barn owls are vivacious and become thoroughly awake. From their ledge in a long-abandoned shed or crook in a piñon, they come forth to feed themselves and their owlets.
It is not out of the norm for a pair of barn owls to put a death grip on eight or 10 mice in an hour’s time. Mice aside, shrews, frogs, bats, and grasshoppers are also favored fare. The barn owls eat smaller animals whole, head-first. The owls rip the larger animals into pieces with their hooked beak well-suited for that purpose. The undigested parts are ejected in pellets. When barn owls eat, or if an intruder appears threatening, the owls will hiss and rapidly click their bill in an attempt to scare the intruder.
Barn owls do not build nests. Over the years, they accumulate a pile of debris which becomes their “nest.” They are not weavers or excavators, not fastidious by any means. A hollow tree is where barn owls would prefer to raise a clutch of owlets. Up to a dozen white eggs, distinctly pointed, hatch early in the spring. Both mates incubate the eggs, and sometimes at the same time. They both feed the young, too. These owl species are valuable in keeping down the number of vermin that spread diseases such as Hantavirus.
Western Screech Owls
At first glance, small western screech owls look sleepy, diffident and uninterested. At eight inches tall, they are less than half the size of great horned owls, with tiny ear-tuft feathers and a rounded head.
Western screech owls are sometimes a mottled overall gray; other times a ruddy or brownish tone. Their feathers are finely streaked on the top side. Underneath, the owls are buff or whitish with black or rust-colored bars. The eyes are a sprightly bright yellow when they are fully open.
Why these birds have changes or phases in plumage without any cause to gender, age or season is a little mysterious. No matter their color, these owls are known for their small size and ear tufts.
Their name is a misnomer, given it does not screech at all. To understand what western screech owls sound like, take a billiards ball and drop it from waist-high on a tile floor. As the ball bounces more and more rapidly over a hard surface to a tremolo at the end, is an idea of what these owls hoots resemble. If close enough to them in the wild, the screech owls bellow a double trill, sung in duets between mates.
The small western screech owls are also cavity-nesters that begin nesting in the spring, much later than other owls. They take to hollow trees, a woodpecker hole or on the top of a broken-off snag. The western screech owls mate for life. They also easily take to a box hung under the eaves of an outbuilding or at least 15 feet up a tree in shaded woods. They live all over New Mexico in the mountains and in the lowland areas along streams.
Mythical Culture
Owls are part of our New Mexico culture and lexicon. “Tecolote” is Spanish for owl, originating from the Aztec language. In Aztec owl is spelled “tecolotl,” and owls is “tetecoloh.” According to The Place Names of New Mexico, by Robert Julyan, the name “tecolote” or “tecolotito” occurs 23 times in New Mexico. The English version is less common, used only 10 times for places like Hoot Owl Draw, Owl Mountain, and so on.
Owls do impress the psyche to cause us to name a place by chance encounters, by what we see and hear. Owls carry a mythology around the world, usually associated with the afterworld, death, clairvoyance, bad weather, and bad omens. But not always. An owl’s hoot may signify that a baby girl will be born, or that birth will be easy. European hunters carried owl talons while hunting so they could climb to heaven if they died afield.
Aside from these three owls, 10 other less common owls live in New Mexico. The burrowing owl is unusual in that it lives underground in prairie dog burrows and under rock ledges in large family groups.
If you would like to do something for owls, contact your Soil and Water Conservation District. Someone can provide details about nest boxes or owl habitat.
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