Lancaster County's Resident Owls

     Lancaster County, Pennsylvania is home to four kinds of resident owls- great horned, screech, barred and barn.  All these owls are nighttime hunters, at least for the most part.  All of them catch and eat small rodents and other critters.  They all have adapted to human-made structures and activities in suburban areas and farmland, much to their benefit.  And all owls are camouflaged, which makes them nearly invisible when they are still.  By being out of sight, crows, jays and other kinds of birds can't see them to heckle them during the day when the owls get rested for the next night's hunting. The owls won't get much rest if they are harrassed by other types of birds all day.
     Great horned and screech owls are "eared".  Which means that each individual of those species has two feather tufts on its head, perhaps to help with blending into its surroundings, and intimidating enemies and rivals for territories and mates.    
     Horned owls are the biggest of this county's resident owls.  They stand about two feet tall and are fierce hunters, catching mice, rats, squirrels, skunks, young house cats and other prey.  They live and nest in local woods, and older suburbs with their many tall trees, particularly coniferous ones.
     Pairs of horned owls begin to court toward the end of November when we hear their loud hooting, "hoo,hoo,hoo-hooooooo, hooooooo", around sunset and into the gathering dusk.  They court all through December, hooting every dawn and dusk.  In January they repair stick nests they usurped from hawks, crows or herons and late that month each female owl lays one to three eggs, at intervals of a few days, in her rebuilt nursery.  The chicks hatch about a month later, at intervals of a few days.
     Female horned owls brood the eggs and small babies in the cold of winter and early spring, while their mates hunt for the whole family.  Later, when the young are bigger, feathered and can defend themselves, female horned owls join their mates in catching food for their growing youngsters.
     Horned owl chicks leave their stick cradles about the middle of April and are on their own by the end of May.  By that time, there are many young, naive prey animals about that the young owls will have a relatively easier time of catching.  Horned owls start their nesting cycle around the end of November so their young will have plenty of prey animals in June and through the summer and fall, before the hardships of the next winter start.    
     Screech owls stand about a foot tall and have two color phases, red and gray.  Screechers live and nest in tree cavities and bird boxes erected especially for them.  This type of owl resides in woods, suburbs, and cropland with scattered trees, such as along country roads and between fields. 
     In winter, the best way to see these small owls is to look for hollows in deciduous trees in woods.  On sunny, winter days particularly, the owls will be sleeping, camouflaged, in the entrance to catch the warm rays of the sun.
     Screech owls begin courting early in March when the birds of each pair communicate with each other each evening.  Their calls are a long, rolling whistle, either on one note or a series of descending notes.  The young hatch around the middle of April, leave their tree cavity nurseries about the end of May and are on their own by the middle of June.  In July, mostly around sunset, young screech owls  utter descending whistles to establish territories.
     Screech owls mostly consume mice and larger insects in woods and fields during the warmer months.  But in winter, they are limited to mice and small birds.
     Barred owls seem to limit themselves to living in woods, and older suburbs with large, deciduous trees, bordering larger bodies of water such as creeks and lakes.  They are not common here in Lancaster County.
     Barred owls are noted for their many scary sounds, including eight-hooting, "hoo, hoo- hoo, hooooo, hoo, hoo- hoo, hooooo-all".  Barred owls hatch one to three young in larger tree hollows, particularly in big sycamore and silver maple trees, early in spring.  This species mostly ingests mice, small birds, frogs, snakes and other small creatures they find in woodlands.  
     Barn owls in Lancaster County are mostly limited to farmland where they hunt meadow mice at night.  They are the farmers' friends.  But because of constant cultivation of cropland, mice are not everywhere in that human-made habitat.  Therefore, barn owls are not common in this county.   
     Having originally nested in tree hollows, today barn owls still do, and in silos, barns and nest boxes erected especially for them.  But many trees with cavities are removed for firewood or simply because they are "unsightly" in some peoples' eyes.  And barn owls don't have access to every silo or barn, causing their reproduction to be limited here. 
     But barn owls inhabit every continent on the globe, except Antarctica.  So they are not in peril as a species. 
     Each female barn owls lays three to five eggs in a clutch.  Both parents feed their young a diet of mice mostly.
     Though nocturnal and hard to experience by sight, owls are often first noticed by their exciting hooting.  But they sound more fore-boding than they are.  However, they truly are a bit of the wild in human-made habitats.  They are intriguing to experience.