02-22-13 Bird Field Note

02-22-13 Bird Field Note

February 25, 2013

Kate Stone's field note describes owl surveys, american marten tracks, and horned larks.

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02-21-13 Bird Field Note

Persistent warm weather prompts many signs of spring: we hear horned larks singing and find bitterroot emerging on exposed hillsides.

Owls begin setting up breeding territories in late winter. On February 11th, we started night owl surveys, broadcasting owl songs in hopes of eliciting a territorial response.

During our night surveys, we heard a long-eared owl hooting from this stand of mistletoeladen Douglas-firs on the east side of Little Baldy.

While out at night, we saw sign of many of the small mammals owls like to eat, including deer mice, voles, shrews, and cottontails. We also saw sign of large mammals that might like to eat us, including these fresh mountain lion tracks.

below). Near the Wire Spool Junction, we saw fresh small weasel tracks. Based on a combination of measurements and the track pattern, we determined that the tracks likely came from an American marten.

prey. In the past few weeks, William Blake dissected 542 whole owl pellets and 359 partial pellets. Most pellets came from long-eared owls.

Small mammal skull identification relies on distinguishing minute tooth and/or palate features.

D E We installed an acoustic monitoring device in Davis Creek to monitor for owls like the western-screech owl. The recorder turns on about an hour before sunset and stops an hour after sunrise.

Saw whet and brown creeper audio sonograms.

Brown Creeper Call

Northern Saw-whet Call

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