Owl Irruption

This diminutive owl showed-up twice on the trail cameras - on December 7 and a week later on December 13.  Two different locations.

At first blush I figured it was a Northern Saw-Whet Owl - a small, year-round resident owl that is more often heard than seen.  But I have captured its image twice on the same trail camera - in October of 2018 and again in November of 2018.

Owl images on a motion activated trail camera are rare occurrences around these parts.  If you go to the home page of the blog and enter "owl' in the search feature you'll get a few hits dating back to 2011.  Like I said - I hear owls all year round but they're stealthy and make themselves scarce. Perhaps they're camera shy. 

In any event, as I was looking at the photos (above) and comparing them to the handful of saw whet photos I have I was struck that the facial color (shades of grey in the IR imagery) were lighter, framed in black and that the size of this smaller, flat-topped, earless owl was slightly larger.

Meet Aegolius funereus - the Boreal Owl - and resident of Canada's mixed wood and conifer forests.  It is a temporary visitor as on sporadic occasions it will appear south of it's normal range.  This is called irruptive behavior and is typically a result of a scarcity of prey in their normal range.

This bird dines on small mammals, birds and insects.  They hunt at night with the exception of the summer when the sun doesn't set in northern Canada and Alaska.  Studies of banded birds offer evidence they they live up to 16 years in the wild.  But as this is a small bird it is frequently preyed-upon by other larger owls and raptors thusly decreasing its average life expectancy. 

Vocalizations are a series of hollow toots that get progressively louder.  Males call until they find a mate or the female begins nesting at which point the singing stops.  Breeding commences in February and can continue as late as July.  This bird most often breeds once a year although if food is abundant multiple clutches may occur on occasion.

It's good to sight an itinerant visitor from our friendly neighbors to the north.  Last Sunday I observed a murder of crows harass and chase what may have been a rough-legged hawk - a frequent winter visitor that nests in the Canadian tundra.