[mou] wow!!! saw-whets....

[bill lane]

hi all,

i write this because it is about owls and it is earth day. what a great combination!

while conducting surveys last night,  i heard 30 individual singing male saw-whet owls in what could only be described as an incredible north woods chorus.  multiple swets were heard at 11 different survey stops.  in addition, there were several great-horneds, a great gray (nearly in my lap), 2 long-eareds, a barred, and of course,  many snipe and woodcock...at least during the hour of crepuscular magic.  saw-whet numbers for the spring have exceeded 100, and may approach the previous high of 143 singing males, recorded during  2003.  

meanwhile, i have nearly completed my first round of nest box checks (hung with tlc during 2005) and have between 12-20 saw-whet nests (early in courtship, it's hard to tell if they are intent on nesting or just "doing the dance"). whatever the final tally, the owls like those boxes.

and now, for an earth day, art hawkins' aside:

last year,  art hawkins' grandson, will brandenburg, helped me hang boxes 34, 35, and 36...in a series of 96 nest boxes.  will magic-marked the i.d. number on the side of the box, filled it with pine shavings and screws, and then watched as modular owl housing was lag bolted to an unsuspecting tree  by a cantankerous, fleece-clad biologist.   during box checks last week, box 36 was the happy home of a boreal owl family.  you can see will's unique "36", the box, and the owl on my website: www.mindspring.com/~owlman   

it sure feels like a holistic, earth day connection to me.  

will's grandfather was an incredible biologist and an amazing man, with a handshake i will never forget.

happy earth day!  

bill 

owlman@mindspring.com
www.mindspring.com/~owlman