Owl Night Surveys, Round 2

This week we visited our spotted owl site for another round of night surveys. This time proved to be less stressful due to melted snow and ease of travel (last time we had to navigate snowmobiles in less than desireable conditions). It was even enjoyable riding the ATV's (pow, pow, power wheels!), especially since the weather warmed considerably. For those of you who really have no clue as to what I'm doing, let me break it down for you.

My job consist of two parts: spotted owl surveys and goshawk surveys. The goshawk part has yet to begin. For spotted owls, we have designated call points throughout our survey area (various locations in the forests of the Sierras). Before sunset we travel via snowmobile, ATV, truck or by whatever means necessary to reach these points. Once the sun sets we can start our survey which consists of imitating the spotted owl call at each point and listening for a response. If we are so lucky to hear back from our feathered friends, the next day we return to the spot pre-sunset and seek them out. The fun part is feeding them mice. The fate bestowed upon the mouse tells us whether the owls are nesting or not (male gives a mouse to a female, or female brings mice to juveniles...obviously nesting). If we find a nest, we'll check up on it throughout the season to determine its success (whether or not there are fluffy white baby owls inside). Best part of this week was finding another nesting spotted owl pair. Unfortunately the pre-sunset light doesn't lend itself to clear pictures but you'll get the idea.

I like the last one...the female is eyeing the mouse on the branch moments before snatching it. The nest they've chosen allows for quite a bit of privacy, but the male decided to poke his head out and check us out. Supposedly this is a pretty unique nesting spot. Considering I've only viewed two nests thus far, I'll take Jay and Taylor's word for it.