Date: 8/24/25 11:57 pm From: rainyday via groups.io <c_griz...> Subject: [AKBirding] Sunday, August 24, 2025 A Disturbance in the ’Hood
Sunday, August 24, 2025 A Disturbance in the ’Hood
Seward, Alaska
Sunrise 6:35 am, sunset 9:27 pm for a total day length of 14 hours and 51 minutes. Tomorrow will be 5 minutes and 20 seconds shorter. Note: civil twilight was at 10:14 pm and soon after, it was deep dark.
At 9:55 pm in the dusky twilight on this overcast, mild evening, I heard at least one ROBIN clucking at the edge of the forest across the street. This was very weird as not only have I not seen any Robins in my neighborhood recently, but they do not usually vocalize at night when they should be roosting and snoozing. Something alarmed them.
However, on Wednesday evening around 11 pm in slightly darker dusky twilight, I heard a couple BLACK-BILLED MAGPIES sounding the alarm in the trees near my house. I circled back and stopped to listen and watch. Again, they cried out from their invisible perches, then silence. Then once again. I looked hard, barely able to distinguish sky from dusk, but saw no movement. Could there be an Owl?
The next evening on my neighborhood walk around 10 pm, much to my delight, a SAW-WHET OWL suddenly started beeping in a quavering voice in the trees near my house, but then stopped. He was very close, but I failed to find him.
Again, around 10:30 pm on Friday as the first stars began to appear, he boomed for several minutes from what seemed to be the roof of my neighbor’s house, raising a racket. And then around 11:15 pm on Saturday, I again heard him through my open bedroom window, but more distant.
No wonder the Magpies and Robins were a tad upset. An OWL in their midst! No matter that he was just starting his day by practicing his courtship calls before hunting a tasty vole or shrew, or possibly a young red squirrel or a small songbird for breakfast.
While I always hope to hear the Saw-whets Owls in the breeding season from late February to May, the late August photoperiod may have fooled him. Whatever the reason, it was a pleasure to be tuned in to the wonders in the twilight.
