In May, I returned to Arizona for my fifth year of helping out on an ongoing research project in the Chiricahua Mountains, and …. oh, who am I kidding? I went to Arizona to watch owls. Amazing tiny owls. Lots of them. It was awesome.
Okay, let’s see some owls! The stick apparently doesn’t bug this Western Screech Owl. It stayed in the same position the whole time we were near its nest.
But it was also great to help on an important long-term monitoring project. Since 2018, my friend and I have traveled to southeast Arizona through Earthwatch for Following Forest Owls (FFO). Other than the pandemic interruption, we’ve done it every year.
I love the Earthwatch model — instead of just sightseeing (or birdwatching), you join a research project as a volunteer. They have dozens of programs around the world, many working on wildlife studies, with a particular emphasis on the effects of climate change on species and whole ecosystems. A portion of the cost of each trip goes directly to the project as a grant, and your volunteer labor helps them gather more data. Once you get to your meeting place, Earthwatch takes care of all the transportation, lodging and meals. (And because you’re volunteering, all of your trip costs are tax deductible.)
Everyone wants to see an Elf Owl when they’re in SE Arizona. This gives you an idea of why they can be so hard to spot.
The best thing about the trips is that you learn so much. You don’t get the same variety of species and locations that you’d get on a regular guided trip, but you really get to know your subject(s) and location in depth. Even on our fifth FFO trip, I was learning new things about the owls and taking part in new activities.The location is worth knowing well — we stay at the Southwest Research Station (SWRS), operated by the American Museum of Natural History. We do our work in the station and in the surrounding Chiricahua National Monument.
We didn’t do any work with Spotted Owls, but that didn’t stop us from admiring this one as it snoozed.
Unlike my friend and me, most participants are doing this for the first time so there’s a lot of training in the first few days. (It doesn’t help the studies to have volunteer labor if they aren’t able to collect quality data.) The training focuses on habitat assessment, owl call identification and skills required for surveying and trapping. There’s also some classroom time covering owl biology, the Sky Island ecosystem and a review of the projected effects of climate change and other impacts on owl habitats.
So, yeah, this is totally fun but also totally serious stuff.
The cavity camera is mounted to an expandable pole, and reach into holes 8 meters above ground.
In our earlier years with FFO, the main daytime activity was mapping habitat at various locations and elevations. This involved calculating tree cover and density, the mix of tree species, and searching for cavities that might be useful as nests or roosts. When cavities are found, they are checked with a cavity camera to assess quality and record contents. Any occupied by owls are noted for followup later in the season.
This cavity is automatically rated as a 5 on quality, because there’s an Elf Owl nestled at the bottom incubating a clutch of eggs.
Each year, the habitat surveys reveal more nests. As the years go by and more of the area has been mapped, the balance of the daytime activities has shifted toward spending more time checking in on known nests. Often, they are in use by the same species of owl; sometimes they are empty, and sometimes they’re occupied by other birds — this year one long-time Whiskered Screech-owl nest held Arizona Woodpeckers.
We interrupt our regularly scheduled owls to bring you this Elegant Trogon, who is also a cavity nester.
This year, we did a habitat survey in an area where it was suspected that a pair of Whiskered Screech Owls were nesting. After recording all the tree data, we took a break then went to work looking for cavities, both chimneys (where a limb has broken off and a cavity forms as the wood rots within) and excavations (holes made by woodpeckers). Lots of the chimneys went nowhere, but we checked them all. I noted one that seemed a little too large and was going to be difficult to get a camera into because there was a broken branch in the way, but we gave it a try.
The hole is kind of big, but we might find something interesting if we can get the camera in there.
Or, we would have, except when my friend prepared to raise the camera, she said “the branch just looked at me.”
Even knowing what you’re looking at, this Whiskered Screech-owl really blends in.
We waited a few minutes to see if the owl would fly out so we could take a peek inside, but she didn’t budge (we were pretty sure it was a female based on color).
We continued looking for cavities while she just basked in the sunshine.
After a break for dinner, we’d head out again as the sun went down. The main evening activity was doing broadcast surveys for five species of owl and recording the presence of any who responded. The protocol is: Start with 3 minutes of silent listening. Following that, cycle through each of the five species of owl with 90 seconds of playback, 90 seconds of listening, 90 seconds more of playback and 90 seconds more of listening, then on to the next species. It takes 33 minutes to complete the survey for Elf, Flammulated, Whiskered Screech, Saw Whet and Western Screech. Northern Pygmy Owl is more active by day, so it’s not included in the survey.
Time to get to work! Setting up a mist net in the moonlight. (handheld long exposure on phone)
If any responded strongly (i.e., in a territorial way) we would attempt to trap them for banding. This involved setting up a mist net on hand-held poles and trying to attract the owl but not catch bats or other critters. We had a great team, and got very proficient at putting up the nets in a matter of minutes (our training paid off!), but captures often took 20 minutes or more, and only about half the attempts succeeded.
The most commonly captured species, by far, is Whiskered Screech-owl. There are a lot of them in the area and they’re very territorial.
Whiskered Screech-owl, freshly banded and ready for release.
Because they are so responsive near their territories and are frequently recaptured (more data points!), they are a good subject for the project’s newest study, GPS loggers. A small, rechargeable data recorder (about the size of an almond) is attached to the bird by a “backpack” harness. It records GPS locations on a set schedule; the bird is then recaptured and the data can be read after the backpack is removed. The data logger can be recharged and re-deployed a number of times.
Recaptured Whiskered Screech-owl is getting checked in prior to removal of his data logger. He’ll be on his way in a few minutes.
The GPS data can be used to help determine the size and boundaries of territories, suggest which features of the habitat the owls are using within those territories as they forage, roost and nest. If a nest location is not known, it can give an idea of where to search. Even though this is the first season that they’ve been in use at the Arizona site, they’re already providing a lot of useful information.
Holding a mist net pole… get comfortable because you might be there for a while.
One evening, we were getting a really strong response from to the Saw Whet call, so out came the nets. I was pretty excited because we had never had a Saw Whet during any of our trips. I was even more psyched when we made a capture! Elf Owl, they said as the net was lowered. But I wasn’t as excited as the biologists we were working with.
58 grams of pure awesomeness — Northern Pygmy-owl
Because it turns out it wasn’t an Elf Owl — it was a Northern Pygmy-owl, which is still pretty tiny but half again as large as an Elf. You might remember that we don’t actually play their calls in our surveys because they’re more of a daytime species. But if you’re familiar with the calls of Saw Whet Owls and Northern Pygmy-owls, then you know there’s some similarity, and apparently that’s what the Pygmy-owl thought too. This was the first night-time capture that the biologists had experienced, so it was pretty cool for them too.
This got longer than expected, so I think I’ll wind it down with this Western Screech-owl. After all the little tiny owls, these look humongous. But they’re a familiar voice back in California, so that’s probably a good way to head home…
Western Screech-owl — long-time neighbors in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
The owls in these photographs were trapped, banded and handled under appropriate Federal and State permits, as part of a long-term study.
I’ll add a few other photos from the trip in the comments.
