The Barred Owl had visits from a Cooper’s Hawk and a Red-tailed Hawk in the afternoon, so just before fly out it called four times. It’s wonderful to watch how it uses its entire body to make the call.

After fly out, the owl made a long flight. (Some kids had been playing in the woods near the roost, and I suspect the owl saw that the squirrels that normally explore there had scattered, so the owl skipped this normal stop tonight.)

I lost track of the owl but someone with good vision found the owl, and someone else was kind enough to find me as I had overshot. The owl was on a log, and then next to a stream where later in the year we usually find American Woodcock. It was an area I always skip looking at, but is a logical place to look and I will from now on.

The owl then perched along the frozen stream about 20 feet up, before going to a small tree it uses to hunt rodents. It waited about 20 minutes before going to the ground and out of sight. It returned to the perch after a minute. I think it caught something and quickly ate it on the ground, but I couldn’t see for sure. It then flew north.

Another wonderful night with the owl.