Backyard Owling
Most people in Calgary associate Alberta’s provincial bird, the Great Horned Owl, with our natural areas. Few expect to encounter one in their own backyard. Yet it does happen with surprising regularity.
Every winter, dozens of Calgarians report owl sightings to the Weaselhead Society’s online wildlife database. Most of these reports come from Weaselhead, Fish Creek or the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. However, a handful of these reports come from Calgary’s residential areas.
In the most common scenario, a sharp-eyed reporter spots a Great Horned Owl sleeping the day away in the boughs of a large White Spruce outside her bedroom window. Occasionally, it is a smaller Northern Saw-whet Owl that is reported. And on at least one occasion, an extremely rare Boreal Owl knocked itself unconscious by flying into the livingroom window of a house in Montgomery.
Calgary’s geographic location makes it the perfect western Canadian city for backyard owling. Many migrating owls follow the foothills on their journey south. Most focus on our river valleys as a source of food and water. The ducks and geese who live in Calgary’s river valleys are an excellent source of protein for these mysterious nocturnal predators.
Backyard owl watchers should be on the lookout for the telltale signs that an owl might be present. The most obvious sign that an owl is roosting in your yard will be the presence of pellets on the ground at the base of a coniferous tree.
These pellets are compressed bits of undigested bones, teeth and animal fur. Typically, they are oblong in shape with an outer layer of matted fur. At first glance, they will often look like a mouse without eyes or a tail. Finding these odourless pellets is a sure sign that an owl has roosted directly above.
Most often though, it will be your other backyard visitors who tip you to the presence of an owl or other predator. Are the normally happy chickadees in your yard suddenly excited and agitated? If so, you can be sure that something is awry. It may be a prowling cat. It may be a hunting Merlin. Or it may be a roosting owl. Have a careful look around and figure out which it is.
Crows, ravens and magpies are also excellent sources of information about roosting owls during daylight hours. Two years ago while traveling west along Southland Drive, I spotted treetop commotion involving all three species. On a hunch, I stopped in the parking lot of the Braeside Shopping Centre to investigate.
Sure enough, a Great Horned Owl was clearly perched in a White Spruce overlooking an apartment building. Three magpies, four crows and two ravens were aware of it and were doing everything they could to drive it off before sunset. Meanwhile, hundreds of motorists were passing by it every few minutes, completely oblivious to its presence.
What is it that attracts these predators into our yards and communities? Without question, it is the presence of food and shelter. Squirrels, rabbits, skunks and domestic cats are all subject to predation by Great Horned Owls. Mice, voles and song birds are also attractive to smaller owl species.
Communities with mature trees near river valleys are ideal locations for attracting owls. They are also the perfect places to begin looking for owls in Calgary.
If you are not sure what to look for, I recommend that you contact the Calgary Field Naturalists Society. Every winter participants on CFNS field trips see and report several dozen owls right here in Calgary.
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Brent Johner has been writing about urban wildlife since 1998. Many of the articles here first appeared in the Calgary Herald, Calgary Gardening magazine or on Talk About Wildlife. Brent has also done dozens of radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews on the subject of urban wildlife.