Gail Compton: Owls are winter nesters

Fall approaches and owls are beginning their annual courtships. Woods are coming alive with the sounds of Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Barn Owls, and Screech Owls

Adult owls pair off in a process called "bonding," lasting for the life of each owl. In late August, September and October, owls return to their nesting territories and reestablish their bonds, signaling each other audibly and visually. Great Horned Owls have a rhythmic "h-hoo, h-hoo, hoo-hoo-hoo" and are called "hoot owls." As they re-establish their bond, they pick out a tree in the nesting territory and begin to build a nest. Great Horned Owls are terrible nest builders: two twigs and a leaf will be about all they'll put into a nest.

Much of the time a Great Horned will time-share a nest with a bird that nests only in the spring. Crows, Red-Shouldered Hawks and Osprey create well-built large nests high in trees and don't seem to mind if a Great Horned uses it in the winter. In northeast Florida, owl eggs are usually laid in November and December. The young hatch in December/January and leave the nest early spring.

This schedule is followed, give or take a month, by most owl species.

If you have a bonded pair of Barred Owls, the call is distinctive: "Who Cooks For You, Who Cooks for You-all?" The Barred Owl and the Screech Owl are tree cavity nesters and will accept an owl nest box (go to "building owl nest boxes" on the Internet).

The Barn Owl is a great help in keeping rodent and pigeon populations in balance. This is our only white owl. It has varying amounts of soft gold and brown on the back and top of the wings but you usually see the white breast as the Barn Owl flies overhead. Describing calls of Barn Owls is almost impossible. They make a wide range of unearthly sounds: yelps, hisses, screams, rasps and whoops (they do not hoot) and will raise the hairs on the back of your neck. Never fear, the Barn Owl is mild tempered and a very valuable pest controller.

The smallest of our owls is the Screech Owl. Adults are only seven or eight inches high and look like miniature Great Horned Owls, including tufts of feathers on the head called "horns." Their courtship calls are quite beautiful. The long trilling calls used to identify a bonded partner are lovely to hear.

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