In the very earliest spring, or even in the late winter, one hears the mournful long-eared owl, plying “his sad song,” and this may be one of the earliest, if not the very earliest, of our awaited songs of spring.
All the owls nest very early, between the first of March and the end of April, or at the latest, the middle of May, and the long-eared owl is one of the earliest of them all.
Sometimes one finds these birds beginning to sit upon eggs during the last week of February, but even though they nest early, they raise but one brood a year.
This is surprising, considering that many of our smaller songbirds, which begin their nesting as late as the end of May, raise two and sometimes three broods before the season closes.
A Favorite With Bird Lovers
The long-eared owl is a favorite among bird lovers. But, like the little screech owl, its ordinary notes are mild and unalarming.
Before the mating season, it gives voice to a thin, nasal, rather querulous, whining, musical Eeeecultuuh; during the mating season, it voices a soft, deep loo-ood, lioo-ood.
Its first notes remind one of the tremulous cries of the screech owl, without so much of the tremolo character, however, and a bit shorter.
The notes are often heard in country districts, on the edges of towns, and even in city parks with evergreen trees. For this, the owl is especially fond of evergreens.
Tomcats Get the Blame
It nests by preference in hemlock or white pine (though rarely here because the foliage is not densely packed enough) or in a large cedar or spruce.
Although the nest, made of sticks and twigs, is large and bulky, it is so artfully concealed among the thick needles of the conifer that it is challenging to spot from the ground. It is placed from 10′ to 50′ feet high.
Even in a city park, the birds may continue to breed year after year without being discovered – though they are often heard.
Sometimes on a quiet night, when disturbed, they break forth into a series of loud, snarling, cat-like cries, which are often attributed by the awakened sleepers to some of the neighbors’ tomcats on the back fence!
A Diet Of Mice And Insects
Usually, however, this little owl is in a good and quiet neighborhood. Not only are its notes usually pleasing, but its habits are even more so.
It feeds rarely or not on the smaller songbirds but confines its diet primarily to house mice, field mice, pine mice, deer mice, shrews, and the like.
Its consumption of the very harmful field mice is enormous – a habit which endears it to all farmers and gardeners!
Insects, too, are eaten in large numbers, giant, destructive grasshoppers, crickets, and the larger beetles.
Appearance At “Owl-Light”
The long-eared owl is our slenderest and most cultivated species. When in flight, its long wings and tail make it appear to be a much larger bird than it actually is, mainly when one sees it, as one does most frequently, in the hours of morning or evening twilight, “owl-light” as the English call these periods.
It is almost exclusively nocturnal, or at best, a crepuscular bird, seldom stirring abroad except during the dim or dark hours.
By day it remains concealed amid the dark foliage. It does not ordinarily take flight at once when it finds itself discovered.
Rather, it draws its feathers tightly about its body and stands stiffly erect – a habit which, together with its obliterative coloration, gives it the appearance of an upright broken stub.
It is an easy bird to observe when one has located it and does not seem unduly alarmed by prolonged scrutiny, even by many persons.
Easy To Tame
The bird makes a very amusing and gentle pet and is very easily tamed, much more so than the irritable and snappy little screech owl. Young owls are the most adaptable for this.
If one finds a nestful of young owls, one should wait until their eating habits are well-established and until they will take food readily from the hand.
Their diet should be primarily meat, with some softened pieces of whole-wheat bread or softened dog biscuit. They like dead mice but at first. These should be cut into pieces. Later they can very easily manage a whole mouse.
They need to figure out what to do with water; no doubt they get all the liquid from their food’s blood and tissue fluids.
Migratory Habits
There seems to be a generally-held idea that our owls, particularly the long-eared owls, do not migrate. But with some other species that also range far to the North, they perform a regular southward movement from the most northern parts of their range, which in our section is Quebec, Ontario, and Newfoundland.
In the New England States, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. They are practically year-round residents, migrating only to the northern sections of these states or from the higher mountains. In other parts, they reside permanently.
The pellets can detect the presence of these owls in any patch of woodland one finds on the ground under their favorite perching places.
These pellets are compact masses of hair and bones rolled up by the birds’ stomachs, then ejected at once from the mouth.
The purpose is to prevent all this indigestible material from making the long journey through the rest of the alimentary tract and clogging it up on the way.
Marks Of Distinction
The long-eared owl can be easily told from our other typical owls by its ears. These, of course, are not ears but merely long tufts of feathers from just above the eye discs; the ears are unseen and buried in the thick, soft feathers just back of and slightly below the eyes.
The ear tufts are set close together, not far apart as are the tufts of the great horned owl and the screech owl, and stand up straighter. The long-eared owl is our only medium-sized owl with ear tufts. In size, it is about 15″ inches long.
The little screech owl is only about nine or 10″ inches long, whereas the great horned owl is nearly two feet long.
The barred owl, another common owl, has a smooth head with no tufts at all; and the short-eared owl has only short and insignificant clumps.
The owls, especially our long-eared ones, may be styled Valentine birds, for their courtship begins in the bleak month of February! Hence the birds could very correctly be represented on our valentines!
44659 by Ethel Hinckley Hausman