MORE NOCTURNAL GOINGS ON…..
Long-eared Owl studies by Frank Jarvis
One of my recent entries covered my adventures to record the secretive Three-toed Woodpecker, which took time, but was successful in the end. Another elusive species I have made good progress with this year is the Long-eared Owl. Although I had many people who reported seeing/hearing them, all were in places close to human habitation, and had too much traffic or human noise to make for a desirable recording location.
After some searching and sampling, I managed to pin down a suitable location in a small copse of trees adjacent to open farmland - still a bit too close to human-made noise for my tastes, but that is where the birds were. Because this was the start of the breeding season and I did not want to disturb them, and also because this is a highly nocturnal species with vision far superior than mine, most of this work was done using static unattended devices. This is always a rather hit-and-miss method, but at least you do know that the birds are behaving “normally”, not reacting to a clumsy human stumbling around. With care and appropriate fieldcraft however you can get satisfactory results.
My birds shared their small copse with at least one pair of Tawny Owls. I had been told that Long-eared owls avoided proximity to Tawny Owls as the latter were more aggressive and could prey on their smaller cousins. However, the following nearly 4-minute recording shows this not to be in this case. You can hear the male Long-eared Owl giving its advertising hooting call, in its low (400Hz) tone, whilst the Tawny’s at a higher frequency have quite emotional interactions, either between the pair or a dispute with another pair:
The piece starts with the Long-eared hoots, and a caterwauling exchange between the Tawnys. At 55s you will hear the pulsed hooting of the Tawny male - a sure sign of courtship, whilst the female makes her “kewick!” calls in the background. At 2m15s the scene again seems to become more emotional. All through these goings on with the Tawnys the Long-eared Owl hoots away steadily, not disturbed in the least by the presence of the Tawnys.
You probably heard plenty of dogs barking in the background from the several farms within a 2km radius of the site. This is an area which gets frequently visited by European Wolves which have re-established in recent years. Many farms have invested in more dogs to protect their stock and all are very nervous and noisy.
LISTEN TO MORE sounds from Tawny and Long-eared Owls
