66 



THE OOLOGIST 



A Nest of Richardson's Owl 



Of all the pleasures which fall to 

 lot of the Oologist in the pursuit of 

 her favorite study it seems to me that 

 none compare with that of taking the 

 nests of the early breeders such as 

 some of the owls, the Canada Jay, or 

 the Goshawk. So tie on your snowshoes 

 some crisp March morning and sally 

 forth into the woods in quest of the 

 nest of the Great Horned Owl and his 

 relative. The Great Gray is to my mind 

 more enjoyable than any other period 

 of the collecting season. It signifies 

 that the long winter is nearly over 

 and that there is three months of 

 good collecting ahead. 



Accordingly in the early spring of 

 1915, I renewed my search for a nest 

 of the American Hawk Owl which up 

 till then had been unsuccessful and 

 one day towards the end of March, 

 Charlie Ritchie, a young friend of 

 mine told me he had found a nest in a 

 musky, a few hundred yards from his 

 home. On March 31st I went up to 

 investigate and in a tamarac or spruce 

 stub was shown an old nest of the 

 Flicker. On rapping the stub with a 

 stick an owl put its head out of the 

 hole. At first I thought I had found 

 the long sought nest of the Hawk Owl 

 but identified it later as Richardson's 

 Owl. 



April 2nd was a fine spring day and 

 gathering together my collecting out- 

 fit of camera, climbing irons and belt, 

 egg box, a small hunting axe, a saw, 

 some baling wire and a few nails I 

 started out to take the nest. The 

 first proceeding on arrival was to see 

 if the bird was at home and a few 

 raps on the stub soon brought her 

 head to the hole as shown in the 

 picture. 



Next I cut three dry spruce poles 

 and binding the ends together with 

 wire, erected a tripod of such height 

 that by climbing cross pieces nailed 



to the side farthest from the nest I 

 could use my camera and in the prop- 

 er position to get a good picture at a 

 distance of about six feet. This is 

 the method I always use in photog- 

 raphing nests which cannot be 

 snapped from the ground and are not 

 too high up to be reached in this man- 

 ner. It is especially useful for all 

 birds which breed in cavities or in 

 large willow bushes such as we have 

 in Alberta. 



Having made already, I climbed to 

 the proper position on the tripod and 

 focused my camera. A rap on the 

 stub brought the owls head to the 

 hold and picture. Not one was 

 secured. Putting on my climbing irons 

 and belt I then climbed the stub and 

 sawed out a section from the side to 

 expose the interior of the nest to 

 view. 



While I was doing all this work the 

 sitting bird made no attempt to leave 

 and I could handle the eggs under her 

 and touch her as I pleased. The only 

 demonstration she made was in click- 

 ing her bill, owl fashion, and lightly 

 pecking my hand. Mrs. Richardson was 

 one of the gentlest little birds I ever 

 met. When I had finished cutting out 

 the nest I climbed down the stub and 

 mounted the tripod again and secured 

 picture number two and then picture 

 three after my friend succeeded in 

 scaring the little owl from her treas- 

 ures at last. 



There were four freshly killed mice 

 in the nest, three of them partly eaten 

 and one untouched. This would seem 

 to show that the sitting bird was fed 

 by its mate. 



The nest was about fifteen feet 

 from the ground and the cavity about 

 ten inches deep, lined with fine 

 grasses, both green and dry gathered 

 from the muskeg. There were three 

 perfectly fresh eggs in the nest, most 

 likely an incomplete set. In size they 



