Owls at Fields Pond

ORRINGTON – We have a pair of barred owls that live on the hill behind Fields Pond Audubon Center. They often hoot from their home up on Copeland Hill. Sometimes their hoot, to the rhythm of, “who cooks for you, who cooks for you all” seems to echo down the beautiful ravine and into the building.

Sometimes we hear a diminutive saw-whet owl’s “toot toot toot toot” going on and on, or the deep, low hoots of a great horned owl.

Intrepid volunteers

There is a group of several hundred Audubon volunteers who go out in the wee hours of March mornings, midnight to 4 a.m., to help Maine Audubon assess the numbers of owls out there. Statewide, we would like to learn whether owls are holding their own, declining in numbers, or increasing in numbers.

Five of these volunteers recently shared their experiences surveying for owls: Karen Larsen, Olga Lange, Mary Lou Dietrich, Dan Potter and Kit Pfeiffer. They spoke of their trials and triumphs, and occasional disappointments, and why they persevered, to a roomful of fascinated people.

Imitating owls

They gave great presentations at Fields Pond Audubon Center! They did splendid imitations of barred and saw-whet owls. They acted out freezing in the dark, with a head lamp on and trying to work a tape recorder with heavy mittens on.

Then, 25 people went outside to see two volunteers “go through the protocol.” (In this context, a protocol is the procedure followed in a science study.) This time, the protocol was done to try to verify the presence of saw-whet, barred, and great horned owls for the audience of 25 interested people.

Some people heard a distant saw-whet owl, and a distant barred owl. But the highlight of the evening was hearing about the wonderful owl experiences of the Audubon volunteers (and other experiences, like being asked by the police what you’re doing, standing around on the side of the road at 3 a.m.).

An encore

Too bad another highlight happened after most of the audience had left for the night. Owl volunteer Kit Pfeiffer, leaving for the night, came running back into the building shouting, “Come hear the barred owls now!”

Barred owls, known to take a while to get stirred up, started to hoot, back and forth. The higher voice of the male would start, then the lower, deeper voice of the larger female would answer. (Yes, that’s right. Females are larger in most birds of prey). They even went into their “Troop of Monkeys in the Jungle” routine, whooping it up, as though they were having a raucous party! Too bad two-thirds of the audience missed it!.

Send sightings, comments, or questions to fieldspond@maineaudubon.org