catherine, I have not seen one owl this Fall/Winter. I am about 45 miles West of Detroit.

Great Horned Owls are the usual here and still are.

tj

On my Facebook birding groups, one is from Colorado the other Arizona & the greater Southwest region, owl photos have been common the past few weeks. Western screech, long eared, great horned, and saw whet.

I have burrowing owl that lives about a block away near the entrance to my subdivision. When I was out hiking a couple weeks ago I got started up the trail well before the sun was up and I had an owl calling from one of the cactus or palo verdes, no idea what kind though, I think it was a pygmy, possibly even the uncommon ferruginous pygmy owl based on location, but could also have been a saw whet I suppose (they all have a high pitched "toot" but the habitat was wrong for the saw whet and the northern pygmy). When I spent the night backpacking down at Coronado National Forest I heard several, once again, either saw whet or pygmy owls.

The great horned in our neighborhood are downright scary to hear then they start with the monkeyish verbalization! We seem to have a few in our neighborhood but haven't heard them since we had warmer weather, not spending as much time outdoors.

PKponder.... aren't those barred owls?

Zach.....quit your bragging! Ha ha ha ha….Just kidding. I am so envious!

Well most of the really good birding is down in the Southeast, around Tucson. Here im Phoenix it's alright, but we don't get the real "specialties" that Arizona is known for. At the house I can't even really feed the birds because all I get is collard doves and house sparrows so don't be too jealous haha.

Well Zach, at least you can easily get to places that have a pretty good assortment of owls. I would have to travel pretty far....

We'll see what this summer brings.

Oh, I'm terrible with owls Catherine! I have burrowing owls on my life list only because they are diurnal. Part of my problem is that I myself am not a night "owl." The other problem I have is that I'm much more of a bird photographer than a bird watcher and its hard to take pictures if birds that come out after sundown. To tell you the truth I have only recently learned the sound of saw whet, western screech, and pygmy owls, and I'm trying to teach myself the calls of elf owls before they arrive to nest in the saguaros sometime next month.

If you are interested in owls however, Arizona is a great place. 13 of the 19 North American owl species live here at some point during the year. But the Southwest is a birders paradise anyway. There is an enormous range of habitat, from low desert to high alpine tundra and the proximity to the tropics brings in a good number of Mexican and Central American species. I added my 120th species to my Arizona list today, after living here for only a few months. It took me two and a half years to get to that number in Colorado. Sure I have been out submitting checklists far more often than I typically do, but it also goes to show just how much diversity there is down here.

Wow.......I'm still envious. :) DH is an owner of a business and we haven't traveled in a couple decades because he can't leave. Also, I've never been able to trust my pets (chickens, cat, dogs) to anyone to watch. We're down to one old dog, so maybe after that. In my "old age", I've taken to doing beautiful jigsaw puzzles. My most recent ones have been owls. Speaking of saw whet owls, I'm going to soon get the puzzle of Carl Brender's "Family Tree"......which is a whole tree of saw whets. I was overjoyed once last year when I thought I heard one, but alas, it was a blue jay, doing one of it's varied calls. I'm living in the wrong place.........in the wrong time. Maybe next reincarnation I'll be in the southwest ........or the rain forest. :) Keep sharing all your wonderful pictures and experiences with us!

CatherineT, I missed your question! The only owls that I've seen, rather than heard were Great Horned. I just assumed that was what I heard. Maybe it was Barred?

Hi PK. The adult great horned owls sort of just make a low-pitched who-who-who. The barreds are more varied in their calls.. The "who cooks for you" call is sort of melodic". Then when they get worked up with each other, they start doing the monkey stuff. The barreds don't have ears that stick up. Sorry if I'm telling you things you might already know.

If you do ever get the chance to come out west, take it! Or maybe we can do the town mouse country mouse thing and swap places for a little bit since I've spent almost no time out east and would love to see it (but not in winter, I like January to be firmly above freezing).

That barred owl is beautiful!

Yes, I see (or hear) a decline in owls in my area esp. in my neighborhood, in Northeast Ohio. For many years I used to hear an owl every December in one of the trees out back, but haven't for the last three years. :( Not only did I cut down an old tulip poplar off the back porch, but the woods behind across the field has been partially logged out and a new home and a business went in over the last ten years or so. This, plus numerous bright security lights have appeared around the neighborhood, three at the new business.

There are plenty of prey for the owls but mainly it's habitat loss in my opinion.

Yes...it's called overpopulation...wildlife and bees are constantly being pushed away for roads and buildings.

Sometimes I really don't like humans. (no offense to any of you).