Local Notes on Young Owls and Hawks 1 



By James Chapin 



Barred Owls, Strix varia. 



At the meeting of this association in October, 1907, I gave a 

 report of my observations on barred owls found breeding on 

 Staten Island last year. During 1908, though I have had less 

 time to devote to it, I have again tried to keep track of the same 

 birds. Our favorite nest, at Great Kills, which has been watched 

 carefully for two years past and which has probably been 

 occupied for a much longer time, was not used this year, I regret 

 to say, though we saw a barred owl near it on March 8. Perhaps 

 one of the birds was shot. In September, however, I again heard 

 an owl near this place, and I hope to find th'em nesting next 

 spring. 



The nest at Woodrow is in a hole in the top of a large dead 

 tree, and the old owl is usually very reluctant to leave ; but on 

 March 29 I succeeded in making it fly by climbing a little way 

 up the tree. On May 3 I went all the way up. The old bird was 

 out at the time, and as I climbed, it came flying back on the 

 opposite side of the tree from that to which I clung. I suppose 

 it could see only my hands, for it flew right at me, scratching my 

 right hand as it passed. This was my first and only personal 

 encounter with an adult barred owl. There were two young birds 

 in the nest, about two-thirds grown, and some feathers of a red 

 screech owl, Otus asio, of a starling, Stumus vulgaris, and of 

 flickers, Colaptes a. luteus. 



Last year I found a barred owl's nest near Richmond Hill ; 

 but as a sawmill entered the region in the summer, and all the 

 live trees around the nest were cut down, the owls were evidently 

 dissuaded from reoccupying their old quarters. They probably 



1 Presented October 17, 1908. 



