NeoVista Birds and Wildlife: Northern Breeders Passing Through: Flammulated Owls in Utah County

Flammulated Owl in Utah County, Utah
October 1, 2020

It's been more than two years since my last post. I got lazy and posted images and short blurbs about my nature encounters on Instagram and Facebook. That approach of sharing is okay, but it feels incomplete. Blogging takes more thought and time, but it also allows me to share more of the experiences behind the images. "The image" is the product of an experience and can memorialize great experiences, but the process of experience is where I personally find value. I enjoy learning and sharing what I learn along with my photos and blogging is, in my humble opinion, a better way to do that. So I'm returning to what I enjoy. I hope you learn from and enjoy what I share.

If I would have consistently listened to my inner child I would be working in nature. I thought it sounded very dignified to be a herpetologist or ornithologist when I first heard and then tried to pronounce those words as a young teenager. Holding a field guide for reptiles and amphibians or birds fed my appetite for finding and learning about the animals on our planet. I wanted to explore, discover, and learn all I could about animals. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom was my favorite TV show in the late 1960s and early 70s and I would often pull out pencil and paper, and sometimes crayons, to draw and color birds that I noticed while out playing in the yard or the fields, hills, and forests of Kentucky.

Well, the inner child is still alive and has manifested itself this summer by driving me, pun intended, to our mountains to monitor the presence of Flammulated Owls in Utah County. I can be inside prime breeding habitat for Flammulated Owls, a montane mix of conifer and deciduous trees, with a 20-minute drive up our local canyon. I've enjoyed introducing some new birders and a few photographers to this little-known owl species this summer and fall, but I've also been making a point over the past month to check every few nights to see if I can hear or see one of them because I want to know how late in the season their presence can be confirmed in our local mountains.

Prior to this season, the latest encounter I had with a Flammulated Owl was September 23rd. So far this season I've confirmed their presence as of October 1st. Chances are that the local breeders I observed during the summer, and their young, have left the county and are already on their way to wintering grounds in places like Mexico. The birds I've recently observed are most likely passing through as they migrate south from the upper edges of their breeding range, which extends as far north as the montane forests in southern Alberta, Canada. I'll go out a few more times over the next week or two until I am unable to see one or at least hear the soft toots of one of the migratory stragglers.

Be curious and maintain natural spaces for the other creatures that inhabit our amazing planet.