Cooperative Living February 2019 - 32

FeatheredFriends | Story and artwork by Carl " Spike " Knuth, Contributing Columnist
Barred Owl
M
Perhaps the most common of Virginia's owls is the barred
owl: the proverbial 'hoot owl,' or the 'Eight Hooter!'
any years ago, I was on the
Quantico Marine Base with
the base wildlife manager
and his friend shooting film footage
of spring wild turkey hunting.
My guide and a local hunter, both
adept at calling turkeys, were doing
their thing trying to encourage a
gobbler to return their calls and
reveal his position.
After a time, my guide tried his
voice call, " Who-Who-Who, WhoCooks-For-You-All, "
an imitation of
the barred owl. Almost immediately,
a turkey gobbler responded.
Perhaps the most common of
Virginia's owls is the barred owl: the
proverbial " hoot owl, " or the " Eight
Hooter! " It is also the noisiest.
The call is delightful, but trying
to sleep within earshot of a vocal owl
can be a different story in some
cases. It may utter a variety of
hoots, screams, chuckles, laughs
or just " a-whoo-ya. "
Owls are noisiest during courtship
when both sexes will call loudly
back and forth, a captivating sound
to anyone who hears them. Calling
usually begins just after dusk or
before sunrise, but sometimes they
may call continuously on moonlit
nights or even on an overcast day.
My family and I experienced this
calling back and forth one spring
night in woodlands across a large
field east of Mechanicsville,
Virginia. A call from the far left
was answered by another owl off to
the right. This give-and-take went
on for many minutes.
Barred-owl sightings can come
in surprising places at surprising
times. One evening just after
sunset I saw one sitting, statuelike,
on a 45-mph speed-limit sign.
30 | Cooperative Living | February 2019
Another time while hiking through
Newport News City Park along Lee
Hall reservoir, I flushed a barred owl
from its loafing spot in the woods. It
was probably hunting squirrels,
which were abundant there. One of
the most memorable sightings was in
Dismal Swamp, south of Suffolk on a
still, sunny but foggy morning. As I
entered the swamp, I came to a
sharp right turn along one of the
many channels. Backlit by the sun,
I saw the silhouette of the roundheaded
owl on a fallen tree laying
over the water. As I came closer it
flushed and flew on slow-beating
wings deeper into the wooded swamp.
A dark-grayish owl with a square
tail, the barred owl has an unusual
pattern of bars across its breast,
which changes to stripes down the
belly. It is a puffy-headed owl with
no " ear " tufts and dark, liquid eyes.
It measures up to 2 feet in length.
Its broad, rounded wings appear
short in relation to its bulky body.
It flies buoyantly with slow
wingbeats and moves deftly through
dense woodlands.
Forests and wooded swamps of
mixed conifers of pine and hemlock
and hardwoods are its favored
haunts, although it will hunt the
adjacent open fields, croplands
and marshes for food. Probably
half of its diet consists of mice,
voles, rats, shrews, squirrels, rabbits,
some birds and occasionally frogs,
lizards, crayfish and a variety of
large insects.
Its feet are smaller than other
big owls' so it tends to prey on
smaller animals. Its toes are
feathered, although those that live
in warmer climes may not be.
Ordinarily, they spend the daytime
secluded in shaded woodlands but
may be active in late afternoons
when it's still light.
An early nester, the barred owl
nests in natural tree cavities or old
squirrel, hawk and crows' nests. It
will occasionally use a man-made
nesting box. Barred owls are often
found in the same woodlands used
by red-shouldered hawks, both
favoring similar swampy habitats
and foods. They sometimes share
the same old used nests on alternate
years. One historical record
revealed evidence of a nest
containing two hawk eggs and a
single owl egg with a hawk
incubating them. Barred owls seem
to prefer pines and will refurbish
old hawk nests with fresh greens.
Two or three white eggs are laid in
March with incubation said to take
about 21-28 days, with the female
doing most of the incubating. After
four or five weeks the young are
scrambling around the nest area. By
the end of April, the young have
fledged, but remain with the parent
birds for the rest of the year.
Barred owls are migratory from
their northern breeding grounds
but are year-round residents in
Virginia. They have, however, been
expanding their range to the far
west and have been displacing the
spotted owl by out-competing them
for nesting territory.
Barred owls are often killed at
night by automobiles because of
their habit of swooping low while
hunting and chasing rodents and
other prey along the edges of roads.
The call of the barred owl is a
delightful sound. You can't help but
crack a smile upon hearing it and
feel richer for the experience. 
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Cooperative Living February 2019

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