For owls in the backyard. Tis’ the season to hear them definitely, as they hoot to announce their territorial boundaries or their availability to the opposite sex. Tis’ the season to see them a little better without leaves on the tree, as well. These photos are courtesy of son-in-law Chris, who spotted this Barred Owl scoping out his backyard for mice this evening.
Because he lives on the edge of a designated wetland, Chris has been at war with the meadow voles for the past couple of years. They tunnel under the snow across his yard, leaving mounds of humped earth and grass that criss-cross the yard. It takes most of the summer for the lawn to recover. So Chris was delighted to see the Barred Owl succeed in reducing the vole population by at least one.
It goes down nicely in one gulp. Unlike hawks who have very low stomach pH which digests bone, owls cough up bones and fur of whatever mammal they have ingested in a pellet about 10-12 hours later. (Hawks also make pellets, but they generally lack bones.) Meat and tissues are separated from fur, skin, and bones in the lower (muscular) stomach, and the indigestible contents are compacted and stored in the upper (glandular) chamber of the stomach. Since a pellet in the upper stomach effectively blocks the digestive tract, the owl can’t eat again until it has cast the pellet from the last meal.
And now this Barred Owl is ready for another mouse, please. Chris, will you come out and stomp around on the snow and collapse some of those tunnels, so the mice will have to come above ground?
I wrote about Barred Owls earlier this fall (Hoo-hoo’s there?), and posted a video of a Barred Owl calling, if you want to compare with what you hear in your own backyard.
Wow. I am not sure I needed to learn that much about an owl’s digestive system just before I had dinner. I am always on the look out for owls, but so far I haven’t seen or heard one in any of the locations that I visit.
Mike, next time you’re out under a big oak tree near a meadow, look for pellets on the ground. If you find pellets, you might get lucky and see the owl that produced them. They often come back to the same spots to roost and cast their pellets each day.
We hear the “who-cooks-for-you” owl in the evenings and early morning. I’m sure they are well fed with all the mice, moles, and voles in our fields!
Owls are such beautiful birds, we sometimes see barn owls and others we cannot identify at night. I have never heard of voles tunnelling like that. We have moles but they tunnel deep and you only see the pile of brown earth they have excavated.
There are voles in Europe as well (even the same species that we have here in the U.S.), but perhaps they are limited to the fields and don’t invade suburban areas. You might not see vole tunnels in grassy areas, unless there was snow cover for a good portion of the winter.
Isn’t it amazing that such beautiful birds eat such (to me) unappetising food. Voles for breakfast? No thanks.
Did you ever read “Never Cry Wolf” with Farley Mowat eating mice in the Arctic? And how about the video “Into the Wild: Alaska” – where the survivors will eat anything they can catch, including mice.
In fact, no I haven’t seen either of those. But no doubt any of us would eat all kinds of things in a famine situation. I read a memoir by somebody who’d survived a Gulag. The anecdote that stuck in my mind was of prisoners making chess sets from tiny pieces of bread, chewed and spat out, then compressed and dried. One time a prisoner could bear his starvation no longer so there’s a graphic description of him eating a chess set.
More immediately, I forget where you live but here in Britain there’s a popular reality-telly show ‘I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!’ in which contestants face a ‘Bush Tucker Challenge’ in which they eat things Westerners find disgusting. To me that’s downright racist against Aboriginal Australians and it’s put me off watching the programme.
Voles can do a lot of damage to a garden in a short time, so owls are great to have around.
From the selfish photographer standpoint, I am sort of glad that Chris has this problem, if it brings the owls and hawks into photo range.
I recently (Last Saturday) had my first Barred Owl sighting in the forest and I am so happy about it. I didn’t know as much about Barred Owls though and am glad to learn more. This is a very informative post. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
Thanks for visiting the blog Shilpi. You have some wonderful photos and commentary on your blog as well. I’m always glad to find nature blogs from other parts of the world!