Who Cooks For You?

As I've mentioned, we have a fairly wide variety of birds that visit our property.  I am slowly learning to identify various songs, like that of the cardinal and chickadee.  Last Monday evening, however, while outside in the backyard, I heard a new one.  That is to say that it was new to me here in Virginia, although I had heard it on television before.  It sounded a lot like this, albeit slightly deeper in pitch.  "Did you hear that?" I asked Nick.  He hadn't, but moments later the call came again, and this time we both heard it.  My face lit up.  "That's an owl!  There's an owl in our woods!"

I did some quick research online to find out what species of owl inhabit the Mid-Atlantic, and then set about trying to narrow down our visitor by the sound of the call.   It only took me a few moments, as the sound we had heard is the classic 8-note call of the Barred Owl.  Humans often put words to these calls; this one is often referred to as the "Who cooks for you?  Who cooks for you all?" call.   The Barred Owl, which grows to a length of 17-24 inches and has a 40-50 inch wingspan, is so named for the horizontal white bars across its chest.  [Side note: that information, as well as the photograph at left, were gathered from the website of the OwlGuy].  They are nocturnal, but during the day roost in trees and in their nests, and they will sometimes vocalize during the day.  Apparently they like wooded suburban neighborhoods like ours: lots of trees to roost in and plenty of small mammals to eat. We have heard this owl several times since the first evening, mostly at dusk or early in the morning, but once or twice in the afternoon.  In hindsight, I heard a Barred Owl last summer once or twice, but Nick was convinced it was the neighbor's television so I talked myself out of it.

This one is definitely for real, though.  I can hear it calling out there as I type this post.  Plus, this afternoon Nick was out with the chainsaw sizing up a tree to take down in the backyard, and I spotted the owl!  (no pun intended)  It's a beautiful creature, absolutely majestic.  I captured a few seconds on video as well.  My apologies for the shaky footage; I was full zoomed in to try and see the owl, so the slightest movement on my part translated to massive camera shake.  Thankfully, YouTube has a video stabilization feature.  At this rate I might have to get myself a digital camera with better zoom for birdwatching!  Oh, and a tripod too.  And a copy of the Backyard Birdsong book shown at right - I bought one for my mother-in-law a couple of years ago and she loves it; it would come in really handy identifying all of the various calls I am hearing without having to go inside and use the computer every time.