When I was in Morrison Park this afternoon there was a great hue and cry amongst the robins and chickadees. I followed the sound through the swampy part in the centre of the Park and found they were yelling at a Barred Owl. But that wasn’t the only area with a ruckus going on so I followed the second sound to the edge of the ‘cliff’ nearest to the schools and found a second Barred Owl. I had been told they were breeding in the Park but had only seen one owl at any one time before this.
We were talking about birds behaviour the other day and it is curious that the robins set up a great racket when there is an owl around but don’t do the same with the Merlins. Both prey on other birds so you would think the prey birds would behave the same. Mind you, I suppose there is no need to highlight the Merlin’s location since they are such vocal birds they do it themselves.