OTHER OWLS ON THE RESERVE, THE NORTHERN PYGMY OWL

As we continue our fall monitoring or NSWO, one other exciting thing about being on the Reserve are the numbers of different species we might detect aurally or visually. Lately the Northern Pygmy Owls (NOPO), a mostly crepuscular/diurnal species has been calling from the trees above our saw-whet nets.

Last night we heard a pair dueting. They are incredibly petite little predators, mostly hunting songbirds, but opportunistic taking small mammals and insects too. I love this video that I found on youtube (https://youtu.be/yoRB3BlT3U0) that shows many of their behaviors . The toot/trill series the owl calls at the beginning is very common with the Reserve owls too.