We’ve heard Saw-whet Owls here several times, but seen one only once. A few years ago one spent a few weeks in our screech owl house.

In March of 2004 I built two screech owl/kestrel nest boxes. I put one box in front near the wetland – a pair of kestrels uses it every year. And I put the other behind the house in the edge of the woods, hoping to attract a screech owl.

A few weeks later we were putting up a Flicker nest box in the same area and I thought we should check the screech owl house to see it there was anything inside. We walked toward it, intending to tap it with a stick, but when we got a few yards away a Saw-whet Owl popped its head out! It stared at us, blinked one eye, and watched while we tiptoed away.

For the next few weeks it stayed there, popping out to look whenever we walked near by. Then one afternoon we heard a Saw-whet call farther down the valley, and heard ours answer. Then we heard the two calls again, from farther away, and then our owl was gone.

We keep hoping it will stop by again, but since then we’ve heard a few calls – in the spring during migration – but haven’t seen any.