Nice, Melanie! For Great Horned Owls in our area the 6 week season of courtship
is near (late December through January), so you may be in for more of the same.
Here's an enjoyable historic piece on the subject, full of Tompkins County
experiences (it's from Frederick Baumgartner's doctoral thesis):
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v050n04/p0274-p0285.pdf
-Geo Kloppel
> On Dec 11, 2016, at 3:01 AM, Melanie Uhlir wrote:
>
> I was very lucky last evening to catch a Great Horned Owl call from a
> westerly direction while about to enter my house on Wood Road at about 10:30
> pm (12/10/2016). I put my musical equipment away and noticed that the moon
> was very bright on the freshly fallen snow. I went out to enjoy this seasonal
> beauty and heard some more owl calls. My partner and I then relaxed with some
> Netflix for an hour or so and afterward I decided to go out and listen for
> some more owl calls. I was more than rewarded by not only hearing more owl
> vocalizations from nearby, but also with seeing two separate dark, silent
> figures fly over the house, backlit by the moon -- and more than that! --
> the further thrill of hearing a seemingly convergent group of owls coming
> closer and singing in seeming harmony, closing in from the south and west.
>
> I'm sorry if this is something I should have researched on my own, but do
> owls hunt in family groups? I had never before been in the right place at the
> right time to have heard so many owl vocalizations in such close proximity! I
> feel very fortunate!!
>
> --
>
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>
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Cayugabirds-L List Info:
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http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html
2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds
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Please submit your observations to eBird:
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