Tawny Owl Survey

[Africa]

Autumn Watch reminded us yesterday that BTO has started an autumn survey of Tawny Owls. Have you heard any tweet twoo recently? Just enter your observations at Tawny Owls - Autumn Survey 2009

[simon taylor]

Intresting - Many thanks for this. I'll cover my local patch when the weather clears up a bit. Strong wind and rain at the moment

[ron1863]

Just completed it and it looks like there is a healthy population in the U.K.

[dunlin]

Am i right in thinking the tawny owl call that most people are familiar with is two birds ie the female then the male
ke wick....female then hoo hoooo male answering
or have i been mis-informed
regards mark........

[shaun a]

Just done mine now hear a pair almost every night this time of year in the woodland behind my garden. Great to lay in bed at night listening to the male and female calling to each other.

[thunder]

Originally Posted by dunlin

Am i right in thinking the tawny owl call that most people are familiar with is two birds ie the female then the male
ke wick....female then hoo hoooo male answering
or have i been mis-informed
regards mark........

There seems to be disagreement on this - some books say that both sexes can make both calls.

henrya

[shaun a]

Thats a good point Thunder I have just got a few books out and read in one that the male and female calls are different and easily distinguishable,but the other book says that the calls can be made by both male and females, also the ke-vit sound is also the call that juveniles make.Now i'm confused

[Africa]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Just completed it and it looks like there is a healthy population in the U.K.

I was shocked by the effect AutumnWatch had on this survey. I had a look at the results map while they were talking about it and at the end of the program, and it went from lots of blank spaces to a very good coverage. There is a next box in a lime tree outside my house, which was occupied for many years. Now the bottom hos fallen out and not even stock doves are using it. I was wondering if the Council has a responsibility to maintain nest boxes.

[willing to learn]

A decline in my patch over the last few years for sure .
Regards
Colin

[shaun a]

I had a caravan in Derbyshire only last year in a village called Monyash and the place was over run with Tawny owls,the farmer who owned the caravan site said Lathkill dale had a very large population of both Tawny and Little owl