Female calling at 6.30 from Harrytown Hall gardens today

Calling and shrieking on St John's Wood, Offerton from 11pm last night.

Tawny calling Tue night on St. John's Wood estate, Offerton, Stockport from 10-11pm
Chris H

Dudley Road, Whalley Range - 7am, Sunday morning, 3rd Feb

Single female `kee-week' in Lime tree outside window

Alright Steve.
Im going with no.5 as they were both hooting loudly at each other. I thought the calling bird may have been a juvenile/subordinate male, but it was the hooting-only owl that retreated first. Definately a territory though as ive seen/heard a hooting owl here on and off since november.
Thank you for the info

Hi Mark,

The BTO ran a Tawny Owl survey in 2005 and the following link explains in detail the calls made and by which sex Tawny Owl calls
The instructions for carrying out the survey may give some insight into what you saw / heard.
An assessment of the number of pairs present was made as follows:
1. Single hooting or calling bird = 1 pair
2. Hooting bird with a calling bird at a distance of less than 300m
3. Hooting bird with 2nd bird hooting softly in response less than 300m apart.
2 & 3 represent the male & female of a pair vocalizing to each other.
4. Two hooting or calling birds more than 300 m apart = 2 pairs
5. Two birds hooting loudly together even if less than 300 m apart = 2 males in a territorial dispute.
That's probably about as clear as mud Let us know if you can work out which it was you saw /heard!

Anyway the most import thing is that the BTO are now running a new on-line survey
Tawny Owl Survey So please submit the record and this will be used in the national Bird Atlas 2007-11 and the GM Breeding Atlas. If you record the birds calling again in a weeks time or later in Feb, submitting the 2nd record, will mean we can count this as a territory which will be shown as a probable breeder on the distribution maps.

Steve

-- Edited by Steve Atkins on Monday 1st of February 2010 07:31:24 PM

I heard a few years ago that you can sex a tawny owl by its call - the wavering hooting for males, the high "keewik" for females. I was lucky enough to find two "males" hooting at each other only yards apart near woodhouses the other day, possibly Matt Potters birds, when one of the owls started to "keewik" inbetween hoots. Now im not sure if they were rival males, a courting pair, or if i should have posted this under bird behaviour . Either way, they were great close views of such normally shy birds

Male calling at bottom of my back garden at 7.30pm,here at Astley Green.

female calling from M219JF at 06.20

Vocal bird around Withington at midnight last night

Two tawny owls calling at 2.00am at Tybyrne Close, Mosley Common last night. One seen in large conifer tree before flying off over my house.

Tawnies were back again last night, definitely heard two males ad a female calling until about midnight.

Over the last few weeks I've had two or three tawny owls calling outside my house in Tybyrne Close, Mosley Common. They seem to come back every few days, one of them has taken to landing at the top of a tree directly opposite, so have had some really good views.

Never thought I'd see owls from my garden (although I think the neighbours think I'm mad, standing on my doorstep in my PJs at 11:00 at night!)

Nice one Dean. Ive never seen so many local Tawny Owls than I have recently, maybe cause Im getting out more than i used to

Just seen a Tawny Owl from my garden. First time i've seen one from the garden since last November.