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Re: Suburban Barreds



>> With respect
>> to prey selection, suburban owls seem to be feeding on passerine birds in
>> far greater proportion compared to their rural conspecifics.
>[snip]
>> The rural guys
>> are primarily taking small rodents (voles, mice, chipmunks).
>
>Hmmmmmm. THis makes me think more about the real impacts of feeding birds.
>Could bird feeding be concentrating passerines in predictable locations,
>to the point that hunting them becomes profitable for an owl in ways that
>it isn't out in the countryside? Or is it that the suburbs have different
>common passerine species, starlings and mockingbirds and sparrows and
>such, as opposed to the more wary and less catchable chickadees,
>woodpeckers, etc. in rural habitats? Guess we have to wait for more
>research...

It will be interesting to find out just what species the owls are taking. 
House Sparrows and E. Starling can be very wary and are certainly not a
piece of cake to capture.  Mockingbirds can be pretty slippery as well.  I
suspect that the owls may be taking birds from their nocturnal roosts during
the winter months and possibly right out of the nest during the nesting
period.  The pickings might be a bit easier  where passerines are perhaps
more concentrated, around suburban feeders, than in "the countryside" .   I
would think that a patch of woods needs to be included in the equation. 
Farmyards/barnyards seem to concetrate birds as well (more likely to find
Great Horned Owls or Barn Owls in those locations). The owls will take
whatever prey they find to be, well, takeable- if they can, they will.  Of
course, only the research will tell what, when, and where.

There was, or still is I think, a famous winter Saw-whet Owl roost in New
Jersey which over the years had proven to be a sure bet to find not one,
two, or three Saw-whets, but often, many of the little owls on any given
visit.  Many of the pellets found beneath the roost trees had bird feathers
and bones among the fur and bones of rodents and other small (very small)
mammals.  By the way, this was in a small pocket of undeveloped land
sorrounded by industrialization, a remnant of a long standing, traditional
roost site.

Anyway, I hope Eric keeps us posted as to what their research reveals.


----------
Greg Dodge
Hillsborough, NC
brownbagproductions.com