ML82181391

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

First seen at 1321, perched in the top of a Douglas-fir south of the main building at Sage Mountain Center, from inside. It stayed long enough for me to get my binoculars and identify it, then flew out of sight. We went outside and started walking to the south along the broad ridge, soon re-finding it in the upper 1/4 of another Doug-fir. From 1333 to 1406 we observed it at the edge of a snow-covered meadow with significant Artemisia tridentata cover in places, perch in the upper 1/3 of Doug-firs, mostly near the top. It was looking around a fair amount while perched, apparently actively hunting. It was nonvocal during our entire count. However, while we walked in the vicinity of Sage Mtn Center earlier in the day, at ca 1020, I thought I heard a distant NOPO vocalization - a rapid "tootootootootoo" series. It was very faint and did not repeat, so at the time I was not sure of it. While we observed, the owl looked directly at us on numerous occasions and was clearly aware of our presence, but let us approach within 20 m without apparent concern. Between the previously mentioned times it perched in 5 different Doug-firs near the edge of the meadow and made a loop via perches from the E side of the meadow to the SW side. While perched, several times it shifted its head from side to side notably. We watched it bobbing in the wind, jutting its tail out closer to horizontal than vertical, possibly to counterbalance. Occasionally I glimpsed its white throat as it turned its head. When it flew between perches, I noted its flight was fairly direct but it seemed to have a quick series of wingbeats followed by a short pause, resulting in some degree of woodpecker-like undulation. At least once a week since early November, Carol has observed a bird of similar approximate size perched at the top of the same Douglas-fir where we first saw the owl, visible from the main Sage Mtn Center building. She had suspected she was seeing a TOSO but mostly saw it incidentally without glasses or binoculars, backlit. Often she saw a bird perching here between 1000 and 1100, generally perched only for a few minutes. A few days ago, she noted a bird perched here with white on its breast, indicating not a TOSO. She thinks shape of the bird she has been seeing was strongly rounded like NOPO, suggesting that it may have been around since that time.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P900

ISO

320

Focal length

642.6 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire, auto

f-stop

f/6.5

Shutter speed

1/500 sec

Dimensions

4608 pixels x 3456 pixels

Original file size

4.72 MB