The Saugeen Shores Christmas Bird Count (for which I am the compiler) is tomorrow, so I drove back to Bruce with my parents. They wanted to check up on our place anyway, so it made sense to come up for a few days and knock off some Bruce birds. The drive up was fairly uneventful.. but I did manage to add a few yearbirds along the way including; Snowy Owl, Northern Shrike and Rough-legged Hawk.
We arrived back later in the afternoon, so there wasn’t any time to go birding. I did flush a Ruffed Grouse on my road just before dusk, so that was cool..
After dark I went out to listen for owls, hoping I could add a Great Horned Owl or maybe a screech. It was one of those perfectly still nights, overcast and pitch black. After a few minutes of silence, a Barred Owl sounded off nearby, my favourite owl vocalization by far and a nice highlight to end the day. I did a poor barred imitation, then waited, shining my headlamp’s beam over the nearby trees. A few minutes later I was just about to give up when my light illuminated the owl in a tree right beside me. We had a stareoff for what felt like minutes, then it lifted off and disappeared into the night.. quite an awesome experience! I hear Barred Owls infrequently at my place, but it’s always a bird calling in the distance, this was my first time actually seeing one on the property.
Off for the night now as I’ll be up early for my last CBC of the season.
(A quick note on Covid precautions.. we brought all of our food up from Paris and gassed up before we left, so our only “contact” up here will be at the gas station on the way back.. where I’ll pay at the pump)
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