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Waiting for the owls to irrupt



Hi Carolinabirders,

To add briefly to Frank Enders' thoughts on Saw-whets: I believe at least 
two were found in the Carolinas last winter by examining mobbing flocks 
of songbirds. If you hear chickadees, titmice, nuthatches, or like birds 
scolding emphatically, follow the noise and try to see what they are 
excited about; could be a Saw-whet Owl, or at least a Screech...

While I'm discussing owls, there's apparently a new owl-based web site at 
http://owling.com called "Western Owling Notes". While it calls itself 
western, it claims to have information for 17 of the 19 species that 
breed north of Mexico, missing only Snowy and Eastern Screech. There are 
photos, sound recordings, range maps, and lots of text information. Since 
it's breeding species only, there's nothing on Stygian Owls, sorry John 
Wright...

On another owl topic, there's another unconfirmed report of a southerly 
Snowy Owl, this one in Maryland. See the MDOsprey archive for details. 
Saw-whets have been collected in north Texas, killed by someone's pets. 
And for non-owl northerly possibilities, an American Tree Sparrow has 
been reported near DC, and an Ivory Gull was on Lake Champlain in 
Vermont. Okay, so that last one's a real long shot to show up in NC... In 
the western vagrant department, the Heerman's Gull in Florida has been 
joined by one in Toronto, and multiple Franklin's Gulls are also turning 
up in the east. Keep your eyes peeled!

About Matt Rowe's report of Sacred Ibis: My first idea would be to call 
the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, followed by the NC State Zoo in 
Asheville. Both have impressive collections of rare birds, I can't 
remember specifically if either has this species. If they don't, or if 
all of theirs are present and accounted for, they might at least know how 
to track down private aviaries that might have lost this critter.

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/