Photo Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It’s me, the crazy wildlife student again. This time, I’m running around in the dark playing owl calls in the middle of the woods.

What was I doing? Owl surveys, and I was helping provide data for the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment (or HEE). Basically what we’re trying to figure out is if barred owls and eastern screech owls prefer managed or unmanaged forests. Do they like pristine, untouched areas? Or do they desire a changing atmosphere where timber harvests are opening up new areas and there’s more variation in the age of trees? The data may tell. However, the process to get it is interesting. We drive between different checkpoints with about 90 for barred owls and 100 for eastern screech owls. At each of these, we blare owl noises out of a truck and wait for anything to respond.

How is this fun? Well first, I got to travel with Jeff Riegel, Field Supervisor of the HEE. He helped me understand what we were doing and told me all about the HEE as we bumped along logging roads just wide enough for his truck. “Be prepared for anything,” he told me as he took out a blowtorch to unfreeze lock after lock. He also had a chainsaw in case of fallen trees among various other tools I’m sure have been put to good use.

It was pretty cold outside, just hovering under 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was dropping as snow began to quilt the forest. It was also very quiet. One of the only disturbances was when we spooked an eastern screech owl; it flew away in its unique way, wings flapping rapidly but its body perfectly still in flight. As we repeated the process of the survey again and again (pop in the CD, roll down the windows, open both back doors and stand in front of the truck with the lights off), I scanned the trees for the silhouettes of owls as snow filtered down through the scarce frozen leaves. Jeff talked about how some owls would perch at the same branch every year and respond to the calls. He also talked about the volunteers that kept up the data flow, how some did it to enjoy the quiet night atmosphere, while others did it just to get the chance to hear the eerie but beautiful sounds of the owls. Even better was the chance to see dark wings among the trees.

The surveys are conducted in the winter to avoid messing with the owls’ nesting season. An owl’s eggs can freeze quickly if left unattended, and the birds will come to investigate the calls to make sure their territory is not being encroached upon, leaving the eggs. The timing has to be careful.

They’re mysterious creatures, but their calls remind us that the forest is alive in the darkness.

Learn more about the Hardwood Ecosystem Experiment.

​Morgan Sussman, Freshman
Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue Univeristy