By Janice Rayman

Published by Los Angeles Audubon Society, Western Tanager July–August 2020 Vol. 86 No. 6.

One evening in mid-May, two friends and I were sitting on our front porch (with masks and social distancing) after an evening hike. Their musicians’ ears heard owls! The next day I started looking for them at dawn and dusk. Then, in the middle of the following day I saw a head sticking out of the old nesting box I had built for an acorn woodpecker which my husband, Marc, and I rescued from a downed tree six years ago. We mounted the box 26 feet high in the silver maple by our front porch. Marc, who always has his camera with him, looked with the telephoto lens and it was a little owl! (See photo 1.)

That evening Kathy Linowski, a casual, but long-time birder, joined me on the porch. Minutes after she arrived, but before it turned dark, we could hear their calls and see little owl shapes hovering briefly in front of the nesting box. Kathy said they were feeding the young. From Marc’s photos she identified them as western screech owls (Megascops kennicottii). These owls, only around eight inches high as adults, eat mostly insects and bats, which they catch in the air. We had a lovely time listening to their calls. She said that, although the owls are fairly common, it is very rare for someone to have owls nesting close by and that I was very lucky.

Early next morning, when we didn’t have noises from cars and neighbors, I recorded the owls’ calls. Kathy was thrilled. On another morning she heard them for real. Before she had cataract surgery, she was reduced to birding by ear and had gotten quite good at it. Now, in the dark, she was birding by ear again. We wrapped up in electric blankets because it was cold at 4 am. Marc and I sat on the porch and enjoyed owl calls until late in the night. You could only see the owls for a few minutes before it got too dark to see anything, but those few minutes were wonderful.

So, that started a pattern for me: up at 4 am to watch and listen for owls and again in the evening until 11. I missed some sleep, but am glad I did it. All too soon, Marc found that both owlets had flown from the nest box to a nearby branch. (See photo 2.) The owlets sat on the same branch all day, sometimes sleeping, several times enduring being mobbed by multiple species of songbirds.

When evening came, they flew into a nearby tree. I could hear but not see them there the next morning. After that, we never saw them again. Kathy’s research revealed that the parents were teaching them to hunt elsewhere.

Western screechers often mate for life and, if they like a nesting site, they will return there year after year. Next year we will be ready with a rented telephoto night-vision scope.

—Janice Rayman (A new member of the LA Audubon Society)