The Spotted Owl 



alternative is that the old birds, continu- 

 ing their distrust of the dangling rope, 

 had deliberately moved them. Certain 

 it is that they would not normally have 

 left the nest perhaps for weeks." 



One of these young birds was eventu- 

 ally required for science ; but the other was 

 dutifully and at much hazard returned to 

 the nest, whereupon the parent alighted 

 within eighteen inches of the suspended 

 ornithologist, and neither offered nor 

 feared molestation. The sci- 

 entists had the satisfaction of &fc--~^_ 

 seeing the old birds accept the 

 situation and attend their re- 

 maining offspring the following 

 day in situ. 



On April 5th, 1914, I found a 

 nest in western Kern County in a some- 

 what similar situation, save that the 

 country was entirely open, and the nesting 

 cliff faced the treeless expanse of the great 

 Central Valley. The young in this nest, 

 an old Raven's, upon a ledge thirty feet 

 up, were more than half grown, so that the 

 deposition of eggs must have occurred 

 much earlier than in the instances 

 enumerated. 



There is no clear-cut account of the 

 notes, and especially of the mating "song," of the Spotted Owl. Clay 1 

 enjoyed a midnight serenade wherein the birds produced a "ghostly 

 racket," preceded by a long-drawn-out whining, which gradually increased 

 to a grating sound. In this performance two birds, attracted, no doubt, 

 by the light, ventured upon a limb within three feet of the inquisitive 

 student. Peytons likens the call of the male to the distant baying of a 

 hound, and Dickey 3 confirms this estimate. The last-named authority 

 gives the adult cadence as whoo, whoo, who, who, the first two syllables 

 being noticeably longer than the others. The note of anxiety is given as 

 a "low, musical indrawn whistled 'Whee ee' ," followed later by an "inde- 

 scribable turkey-like chuckle." A concert attended by the author, 



■Condor, Vol. XIII.. p. 75. 

 2 Loc. cit.. p. 122. 

 3 Loc. cit.. p. 200. 



I095 



Taken in Ventura County 

 Photo by Dickey 



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