Gus the Stud Muffin

WC’s house is the home to two owls, a Boreal Owl and a Great Grey Owl. They aren’t a huge inconvenience, once you get used to the frozen mice thawing in the refrigerator. But last night for Alaska Bird Observatory’s Owlapalooza, WC and Mrs. WC hosted two visiting owls from Anchorage, Gus the Great Horned Owl and Ghost, a Snowy Owl.

Gus went into the deck owl mew. Ghost stayed in a kennel in the house. At about full darkness, Gus started calling. And called all night. About 1:00 AM, Gus started getting a response. In fact, as things lightened up this morning and the concert continued, it was apparent he had called in a female Great Horned Owl. Gus is a stud muffin.

An elderly stud muffin; Bird TLC reports he was probably born in 1991, which makes him a grey beard in Great Horned Owl years.

But the lady he called in was beautiful.

Great Horned Owl (Female)

What’s not like about this pretty lady? What’s not to like about Gus, if he can call in a girl like this?

Of course, they were calling (you can’t properly call an owl’s call a “song”) all night. Loudly. In Great Horned Owls, calling is a pretty serious physical effort: you lean far forward, raise your tail, fluff out your white bib and let go a series of hoots.

Great Horned Owl Calling

Birds of North America describes it as a “‘solemn, deep-toned hooting’ with ‘great carrying power . . . likened . . . to the sound of a distant foghorn, soft, somewhat tremulous, and subdued hoot, with little or no accent,’ of 3–6 notes.” The female’s vocalizations are distinctly higher-pitched than the male. And occasionally Gus and his girl sang together, harmonizing, which was utterly charming.

Over the course of an entire night, the charm wore off a bit. WC can only wonder what the neighbors must think.

Inspection this morning showed the deck mew had been chewed up pretty good, from the outside. Great Horned Owls usually breed in late January or early February at these latitudes. Unseasonable owl lust? Or territorial defense? Anchorage’s owls seducing Fairbanks owls? WC will let readers project their attitudes on the story. Write your own ending.

But Gus will spend his second and last night in Fairbanks in his kennel in the garage. If only to let WC get some sleep.