rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) (08/29/89)
My sources say that Saw-whet owls lay 4-7 (usually 5-6) eggs, so a brood of 8 would seem exceptional. I confess that when I read your note on these birds from Ponca City, Ok., I thought that they couldn't possibly have been Saw-whets in Ok.--but I'm wrong. I did find a record from near Tulsa. Unfortunately I don't have a Birds of Oklahoma handy. Could anyone fill me in on the species' status in OK? I suspect that they're rare as hen's teeth. Knowing the Great Plains and the owl's habitat in the Rocky Mts. and Ontario, it seems exceptional to me that the species would occur in north-central Oklahoma. Were there lots of red cedars near your house? I know that there are north of there in Kansas. Warblers are moving through here now. --Jim Rising -- Name: Jim Rising Mail: Dept. Zoology, Univ. Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1 UUCP: uunet!attcan!utzoo!rising BITNET: rising@utzoo.utoronto.bitnet
mikeb@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Mike Burger) (08/31/89)
In response to a question about the types of trees near where the family of Saw-whet owls nested and raised a family: In Ponca City we had mostly Elms, Oaks and Maples. Very few evergreens. Ponca City is right on the Arkansas River as is Tulsa. It is possible that the river bank habitat with its fairly heavy woods created a winding extension of suitable range for this bird through the flat grasslands and wheat fields. Ponca City has a lot of trees and is somewhat "attached" to the river bank habitat. The owls were in a neighborhood with lots of trees and very close to a small drainage ditch that ran eventually into the Arkansas River a few miles away. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mike Burger, Chemistry, 2545 The Mall | University of Hawaii | BITNET: MIKEB@UHCCUX.bitnet | Honolulu, Hawaii, 96822 | INTERNET: mike@helium.chem.hawaii.edu Phone: (808) 948-7503
sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) (09/13/89)
In article <1989Aug29.163529.6630@utzoo.uucp> rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) writes: >I confess that when I read your note on these birds from Ponca >City, Ok., I thought that they couldn't possibly have been >Saw-whets in Ok.--but I'm wrong. I did find a record from near >Tulsa. Unfortunately I don't have a Birds of Oklahoma handy. >Could anyone fill me in on the species' status in OK? I checked DeSante and Pyle, who I regard as the standard reference on bird distribution, and they list the Saw-whet in OK as 'xV,xW'. These five characters translate to : - It has been seen at least once and not more than 10 times in the last 50 years in 'winter' which D&P define as between Jan 1 and some unknown end that depends on species and locality - Separate from that, it has been seen one to ten times at a time not in winter and not compatible with breeding either. Reading between the lines, it means it was seen several times between Dec and March. I also checked on the other states' listings in D&P and it appears there is some north-south movement. In winter, it withdraws generally from Canada, and appears in states south of its breeding range - Kansas, for instance, comes in as 'rV,rW' which translates to more than 10 times BOTH in winter AND as a 'vagrant' - meaning at least 22 times in all. I checked the annotated checklists I have for Washington, Oregon, N. Calif., Yellowstone, and Minnesota, and they agree with D&P (not surprisingly, because they are the primary source of D&P anyway). However, both McCaskie for N.Calif. and Janssen for Minnesota (and if you didn't know, these guys are Big Names at this game) say that the bird's movements in winter are poorly known. This all comes down to that breeding records for the N.Saw-whet Owl in OK are nonexistent - D&P do a careful job. So the original observer should report it. I can supply the name of the American Birds regional editor - I don't have it handy. Note that I can't claim to be an expert on either Saw-whets or OK birds. This is just officiousness from some guy from Florida. My only Saw-whet was in April of 1983 on the Cal coast near Santa Barbara - that's a story in itself, that's too long to post on the net. Daan Sandee Supercomputer Computations Research Institute Florida State University, Tallahassee sandee@sun6.scri.fsu.edu