SCHIESS: The secretive life of the Saw Whet Owl

Playing tag with a couple of Mountain chickadees in the willows along the South Fork of the Teton River was enjoyable, as I cleaned nest boxes I had placed a year ago. Deer and moose trails made wallowing through the 10 inches of snow that had fallen over Christmas easier than I had anticipated.

As I neared a nest box that had been used by a pair of Saw Whet owls last spring, I heard the mobbing sound of both Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees in a nearby thicket. Not 12 feet away two wide open eyes peered at me from under a canopy of snow stacked up on the thick brush. The owl was probably one of the two adults that had used the nest box last spring and has staked it out already.

I had built six nest boxes specifically for Saw Whet owls and placed them along the area rivers, most on private property because of harassment nesting owls get from the people on public ground. During the last two nesting seasons at Market Lake Wildlife Management Area, owls have abandoned their nests because of visits by hundreds of people looking for the owlets.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game have been forced to close the popular windbreaks to the main trails through the nesting areas.

Of the six nests placed, three were used by Saw Whet couples with two pairs raising four each with the third pair raising six owlets. Saw Whets have some very strange nesting habits that makes the small birds vulnerable to too many visits by humans. Looking for a mate begins in February and their nightly calls will place them in an area where they will nest. By early March, a suitable cavity will become the home of the pair until eggs are laid, then the male must find a new cavity or tunnel in thick vegetation to spend the day.

After pairing up, the female will incubate the eggs while the male brings in food, mostly mice, for her as she sits. About 18 days after the last owlet has hatched, the female abandons the nest, leaving the male to care for the young while she may start chasing another suitable male. While the female is with the owlets, she keeps the next box or cavity in a tree totally clean but like most men, cleanliness is not the top priority of the male. He is busy all night catching mice and dropping them into the nest for the young to eat.

Feces, left-overs and pellets from the young soon cause the nest to reek and active nests can be located by smelling them twenty to thirty feet away. I have found active nests just from the stench coming from it. I don’t know if it is the smell or just the time for the owlets to leave the nest, but the owlets leave in two or three weeks after the female has departed. They will usually stay in the thick brush near the nesting site for another month while they learn to fly and hunt.

Saw Whet owls are nocturnal and during the day stay in the thickest brushes or trees they can find. They are common owls, but are very hard to find because of their size and their ability to hide, rarely flushing until a person is within a few feet of them.

Of all the species of birds, owls seem to attract people which is usually good, but sometimes gives too much attention to them. Several birding internet sites refuse to run pictures of owls in nests that will allow people to identify their location.

After a couple of pictures of the owl, I cleaned the rest of the nests, adding a little nesting material hoping that they will be used again this spring and summer. Next visit to the nests – March.