Over the next few months as the nights get perceptibly longer, our tawny owls will in turn become increasingly vocal as young birds try to make their mark and form territories. The owls hoot and screech from just after sunset right through to dawn, making it one of the busiest times of year in the owl calendar.
Setting up territory is an energy sapping business, but it is also one of the most important things a young owl has to do, if it is to thrive and successfully breed. Tawny owls generally mate for life, and once a pair has established a territory they will defend it doggedly throughout the year from other owls.
A good territory that offers safe nest sites and fruitful hunting areas for voles and mice is like gold-dust, and incumbent owls do not take too kindly to young pretenders trying to move in. The young owls, therefore, have to tread carefully as they continually call so as to determine areas that are vacant.
It is a haunting experience to be out in the woods just after dusk and listen to these tawny owls engage in their vocal duels. The quavering “hu…hu-hoooo” is the main call of the male, while the female’s principal vocalisation is the more strident “kee-wick” call, which the Scottish naturalist David Stephen likened to an Indian war whoop.
Gilbert White, the pioneering 18th century nature diarist, was also greatly intrigued by the subtle variations in the call of the tawny owl. He wrote: “My musical friend, at whose house I am now visiting, has tried all the owls that are his near neighbours with a pitch-pipe set at concert pitch, and finds that they all hoot in B flat”.
However, he recounted later of instances of other owls hooting in different keys. White wondered: “Do these different notes proceed from different species, or only from various individuals?”
It is such inquisitive questioning that has led to our much more comprehensive understanding of the natural world today.