Screech Owl-appalooza.

The morning of December 13th I added two species of owls to my life list (#9 and #10).

# 9: Western Screech Owl -- the owl who serenaded me to sleep when I was a child.

Ten days ago a report came through cobirds that a Western Screech Owl had been seen in a park near Colorado Springs. Growing up in a forested area of Northern California, I had heard these owls singing at night many times. But I had never seen one. I looked at my calendar, but with 2 jobs and the approaching holidays, I couldn't find any openings to make the drive. To torture myself, I checked cobirds daily. Every day for 7 days, birders reported seeing the owl. Then on Monday my girlfriend told me that our friend had posted photos on Facebook of that very owl. Moreover, the ID had been confirmed as Western instead of Eastern due to its call. That's it, damnit. I'm going to go see this owl. The only problem was the two jobs thing. I schemed. The writing center job was impossible to get out of since my time there was already booked with appointments and using vacation time at my other job was not a viable option. I did the math: with 2 hours of personal time remaining I could perhaps work really long days and take Thursday off. A solution! (Many thanks to my supervisor for her flexibility.) So, after three 12-hour work days, the added time of driving back and forth between jobs, and a head cold I had acquired from overwork and lack of sleep, I was headed down I-25 to Colorado Springs. Priorities. Thankfully I have always been real good with delayed gratification. Now if only the little owl could hang out at the park a bit longer.

We arrived at the park when most people were beginning their work days. Thanks to good directions from our friend we easily found the Western Screech Owl roosting in a cavity of a cottonwood tree, bathed in the sunlight of a 30F morning. Its plumage resembled cottonwood bark, making me realize that I'd probably walked past many camouflaged screech owls in my life.

#10: Eastern Screech Owl -- an owl that has eluded me until this morning.

After Colorado Springs we headed to Littleton in hopes of catching a second species of screech owl, because wouldn't it be cool to see two species of screech owls in one day? Again we called our friend, who gave us directions to a grove of cottonwoods where the owl was roosting. We searched the trees for a few minutes until my eyes caught sight of the owl nestled in a knot, just above eye level -- it was the eastern counterpart of the owl we had seen an hour earlier. Several times its eyes opened to a slit, and we saw a sparkle.

A side by side comparison of two sleeping owls (left Eastern; right Western):

The Sibley Guide to Birds states that "Most Eastern Screech-Owls are much browner than Western, but the two species look nearly identical where their ranges meet; hybrids have been recorded, and not all individuals can be safely identified." Their primary songs are distinct [the Western "an accelerating series of short whistles (bouncing-ball song)"; the Eastern "a strongly descending whinny with husky falsetto quality reminiscent of whinnying horse"] (Sibley). Where ranges overlap, calls are often used to confirm IDs, such as in this instance.

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With two more species of owls added to my bird list, it was a successful day. In January I travel to Sax-Zim-Bog, Minnesota to search for boreal species, and with a little luck, but mostly local knowledge, I hope to add a great gray owl, a boreal owl, and a northern hawk owl. But I'll try not to get ahead of myself.

Instead, I'll end with a photo of a snowy owl (species #7) that I took with my iPhone through a spotting scope. This is the snowy owl that appeared at Standley Lake last year around this time.

Whooooooo.