Spring has come to Florida and with it a loud, insistent sound.

KEE-aah!  KEE-aah! KEE-aah! KEE-aah! KEE-aah!

The bird shouts 5-12 times, waits about five minutes and shouts again. It’s a red-shouldered hawk.

Not for them the silent territorial circling of the peregrine falcon.  Red-shouldered hawks have to tell the world, “I’m here!”  When a pair displays together they lengthen their calls and repeat them 15-25 times before a pause.

The only thing that seems to shut them up is the need to hunt and to hide the nest.  But if something threatens the nest all bets are off.  They circle and dive on the intruder, calling excitedly.  So much for hiding!

My field guide calls red-shouldered hawks “noisy, often heard before seen.”  Some say red-shouldered hawks are the noisiest hawks in North America.

This may not be a good claim to fame.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

January 20 – February 11 is the time for Pennsylvania’s Winter Raptor Survey (WRS) when volunteers drive prescribed routes and tally the number of raptors they see.

Many volunteers post their counts on PABIRDS where we learn that our most numerous winter raptors are red-tailed hawks.  (No surprise there!)

The reports include weather and snow cover conditions because this affects the number of raptors seen.  This year few routes have snow.

In a snowy year rough-legged hawks move south in Pennsylvania.  They breed in Alaska and Canada and winter in the Lower 48.  They’re found hunting in open meadows and brushy areas for mice, voles and rabbits.  But only where there’s snow cover.  If there’s snow, the rough-legs are here.  If not, they stay up north.

Two years ago we had a lot of snow — so much that it was hard to drive the routes.  (Remember the two feet of snow February 5-9, 2010?)   This year it’s easy to drive but the birding isn’t as good.

I’m not asking for a return to the snow of 2010 but snow in moderation would be nice, if only for rough-legged hawks.

Steve Gosser was lucky to see this one at Pymatuning on January 14.

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Winter’s back!  After a week of highs in the 40’s and 50’s, this morning dawned at 18 degrees F with winds gusting to 32mph and a wind chill of 1 degree.  Brrrr!

But… with winter’s return there’s a report on PABIRDS of a snowy owl in Somerset County.

This winter “snowies” are coming south in big numbers.  From New Jersey to Oregon, from Ohio to Oklahoma more of them are visiting this year than anyone expected.  In November Jesse Ellis created this collaborative Google map of snowy owl sightings, showing the beginning of the owl invasion.  (It was last updated in December, then moved to eBird where the number of pushpins isn’t as limited.)

Wisconsin has seen a lot of snowy owls.  By December 10 birders had already counted 80 in a state that usually sees 10 in an entire winter.  This influx did not go unnoticed by other birds of prey.  On November 21, Luke Kvapil was about to photograph an owl perched at Milwaukee’s harbor when a peregrine falcon flew in and took a swipe at the bird.  Click here and scroll down to see the peregrine harassing the snowy.

As of this writing there’s no information on the location of the Somerset County snowy owl, but several intrepid birders are looking for it.

Intrepid is the word!  If it’s winter in Pittsburgh, Somerset County is the arctic.

Perhaps that’s why the snowy owl is there.

(photo by Kim Steininger)

The names of these owls used to be the reverse of each other.

The eastern screech-owl on the left used to have the scientific name Otus asio.  In 2004 the American Ornithologists’ Union renamed him to Megascops asio, but his old name is still found on the web.

The long-eared owl on the right is still named Asio otus.

For reasons of symmetry, I wish the AOU hadn’t renamed the screech-owl.

“Otus Asio, Asio Otus” was rather fun.

(both photos are from Wikimedia Commons.  Click here to see the original of the eastern screech-owl.  Click here to see the original of the long-eared owl.)

Good morning, “Hunter!”

That’s the nickname Bill Powers gave to this eastern screech-owl roosting in an owl box in his Murrysville backyard.

Bill is founder and CEO of PixController, a company that specializes in wildlife streaming webcams.  PixController set up the National Aviary penguin cam, the Gulf Tower and Pitt peregrine streaming cams, and the famous Lily The Bear cam which will be live again soon.

To demonstrate PixController’s expertise — and for fun — Bill has four streaming cameras set up at home.  Three are at ground-based feeding stations.  The fourth is in this owl box.

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In October Bill noticed an eastern screech-owl roosting in his only owl box so he set up four more boxes in hopes of attracting a nesting pair in the spring.  At first the owl preferred box #1 but he didn’t roost there every day, though he sometimes left food for later consumption.  One day while the owl was away a squirrel built a nest over the owl’s cache and the owl never used that box again.

Now what?  Bill waited and watched until he knew which of the other boxes the owl like best.  Here’s how he figured it out:

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After Hunter chose a new box, Bill installed the streaming webcam with an infrared light so we can see the owl even when the box is dark inside.  That’s why Hunter looks white in the webcam snapshots.

In today’s photo (at top), Hunter is facing the hole with his head bowed a little while he sleeps.  We see the top of his head and his back.  Reddish sunlight is brightening the box hole and two cracks at the front corners of the box.  Today Hunter brought a dark-colored mouse-y snack with him which he cached on the right.

Here are more pictures of Hunter sleeping, looking up and flying out.

You can watch Hunter live today (December 18) by clicking here or on the first photo above.  If you miss him today and he’s not there when you look for him, check back the next day.  Hunter doesn’t use this box every time.  He has other places to roost, but he’ll be back.

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(photos by Bill Powers and PixController Wildlife Camera #4)

p.s. Click here to see all four PixController cameras on one page.

Last month Cris Hamilton visited Conneaut Harbor, Ohio to photograph visiting gulls and terns at the Lake Erie shore.

While there she saw two immature bald eagles chasing each other.  One had a fish.  The other wanted it.

Ooops!

I wonder if the fish fell in the lake and survived this ordeal.

Click on Cris’ photo to see her Conneaut Harbor album.

(photo by Cris Hamilton)