Maine Birding Field Notes: Barred Owl Irruption Underway

Field Notes
Derek Lovitch, a career biologist and naturalist with a life-long passion for birds, now lives in Pownal He and his wife, Jeannette, own and operate the Wild Bird Center of Yarmouth, which serves as a vehicle to share their passion for birds, birding, and bird conservation. Derek goes birding nearly every day, all year long, and blogs about it here.

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December 07, 2007

Barred Owl Irruption Underway

You know its cold when the fur-covered dog is shivering in the morning. Yup, 5 whole degrees out there when I awoke, rising all the way to 7 when we stepped out the door. Snowshoeing at Bradbury Mountain State Park quickly warmed me up however, even if the only noteworthy bird was a single White-winged Crossbill in flight.

Just as we were stepping out the door to head into the store, Jeannette and I heard a Pine Grosbeak somewhere near, or perhaps flying low over, the yard – our 101st yard bird. Funny, just yesterday I replied to Dan’s comment to my blog entry for 12/4, asking him to send some Pine Grosbeaks over from his yard. Thanks Dan?!

Meanwhile, for those of you who don’t read the Maine-birds listserve, there have been an unusual number of reports of Barred Owls of late around Maine (Remember the prediction from the Ontario Winter Finch Update from my 11/30 post?).

Here is my post to Maine-birds, providing some information about the irruption of Barred Owls that seems to be underway. That was followed by some confirming data from Avian Haven, a wildlife rehab facility in Freedom.

Posted by Derek Lovitch at 10:43 AM

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Comments

We had a barred owl in our backyard on Tuesday morning (Buxton area) after the snow fall. It was our fist sighting this year. We could see it looking for any sign of movement beneath the snow.

Posted by JLL
December 7, 2007 01:32 PM

We just saw a barred owl near Old Chatham, NY. We're not officially, "birders" but we often are on the lookout for different varieties of them. We saw this guy on Quaker Museum Road near Old Chatham Sheepherders. I know you do not know the area. Backed up the car and opened the door to take a picture and he (she) few. It was quite an experience for us.
What a beauty! We will go by there more often to try to replicate the experience.

Posted by Howard Feingold
December 25, 2007 10:12 AM

Barred owl sitting on branch as we speak 2nd visit owl got red squirrel near bird feeders 2 days ago. What a treat

Posted by Dana Mahoney
December 27, 2007 01:39 PM

Spotted a Barred owl sitting on our bird feeder in Buxton,Maine on Jan 27 (Sun). It was lunch time and I'm assuming he was looking for a snack.

Posted by Charlie
January 28, 2008 03:31 PM

I photographed a barred owl in broad daylight in a tree right next to a home in Boothbay Harbor, Maine on Thursday, February 20. The young owl stayed in the vicinity of the residence until snow covered the ground a few days later. Though it is very sad that the owls are having such a hard time finding food this winter, it provided a real adventure for the young boys in the home where the owl visited who are great owl enthusiasts(as am I)so God always works all things together for good to those who love Him and for those that are called according to His purpose. We pray he got the food he needed to survive.

Posted by Joe Orchulli II
February 26, 2008 02:16 AM