File:The Canadian field-naturalist (1970) (19900107073).jpg

Title: The Canadian field-naturalist
Identifier: canadianfieldnat841970otta (find matches)
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: Ottawa, Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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1970 Smith: Nesting Hawk Owls Near Ottawa 379 could not tell apart because of limited visibility in the mosaic of sun and shadow among the foliage, made two more visits to the nest. One visited the nest for less than one minute, then one repeated the previous prolonged wing- flapping performance there. When I stood up after watching the owls for two hours, an adult which had perched for a long time in a tree 80 feet from the nest flew away. As I climbed up the nest tree, an owl appeared and started screaming a strident, hawk-like "kee-kee-kee- kee" or "kip-kip-kip-kip" at me. It perched at nest level 15 feet away and continued scream- ing until I climbed down and started to walk away, whereupon it became silent. The internal diameter of the concave, rotted- out top of the stub was seven inches; its ir- regular rim was only a few inches high on the low side, about 18 inches high on the high side opposite, and it sloped between the two sides. The crumbled, rotten wood floor of the nest was two inches deep in solidly packed damp fur and feathers, reeking of ammonia and crawling with maggots. Upon this unsavory substratum were crouched four greyish-white, downy baby Hawk Owls of graded sizes and one blood-stained, dirty white egg. When I approached the next morning, 26 May, an adult was in a nearby tree. Over the next 70 minutes it flew to several trees within 100 feet of the nest, screeching and calling "kee-kee-kee-kee" but it did not go to the nest. From the ground we could see and we photo- graphed through a spotting scope the downy heads of several active owlets, upon which flies were landing frequently. As my wife, W. E. Godfrey, and I ap- proached the woodlot on 29 May, an adult owl flew from a tree in a nearby field along the south edge of the woodlot towards the nest. It flew around giving its "kip-kip-kip-kip" call a few times and the "screeeeeee-yip" call many times, and perched briefly on a post in the field and on several trees on the edge of the woodlot. While we stood in the field, we watched a young owl in the nest repeatedly give a weak imitation of the screeching call of the parent. When I climbed the nest tree, the adult came much closer and continued screech-
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FiGURE 2. Four young Hawk Owls huddled to- gether in nest depression in broken top of red maple, photographed from directly above. 29 May 1963. ing but the four owlets stopped calling and scrunched down in the nest where they re- mained still and silent as seen in Figure 2. The largest two owlets were quite well feathered, especially on the wings, compared to four days before. Beneath them was the dirty brown un- hatched egg which I collected for the then National Museum of Canada. Since my last visit, many droppings had whitewashed the edge of the nest and adjacent trunks. While I was photographing the owlets in the nest, the second parent flew near carrying a vole in its bill. Both birds flew from perch to perch in nearby trees, the first continuing to call, then the second flew off into the woods. On 31 May, a man working at the nearby farm told me that there was a young "screech" owl with an injured wing (?) on the ground in the woodlot and that its parent "would take your head off if you were to go near the young one"! From the ground I saw owlets moving in the nest and heard them softly 'screeching'. Again they became silent when I climbed up. Only three owlets, now fairly well-feathered beneath their down, were in the nest and a

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