Possible Little Owl on North Island

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SomesBirder
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby SomesBirder » Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:34 pm

Have you tried going in the direction of the calls when you have heard them?
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FlyingKiwiGirl
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby FlyingKiwiGirl » Wed Nov 11, 2015 9:53 am

And recording it?
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Noisyboys3
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby Noisyboys3 » Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:48 pm

Yes, tonight I've been for a walk up the hill with my phone and recorded several minutes. I will try and edit out the footsteps, me puffing, and the odd bit of breeze interfering..but I got a lot of calls recorded. What was amazing was I thought there was maybe two, but after hearing them tonight I would hazard a guess of at least 5 spread over quite a big area. In the recording you can hear faint far away ones and one or two a lot closer. The close one/s seemed a bit wary of me and got noisier the further away I walked. There was some others squawking going on which I assume was magpies at one point. As I returned home I heard another one far off in the opposite direction, which I'm pretty sure was not an echo. I don't know, maybe someone will say, oh that's just a suchandsuch, but I will press on! Have no idea how to get a recording on here but will edit first anyway.
flossiepip
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby flossiepip » Wed Nov 11, 2015 9:25 pm

There is a very good recording of little owl calls on the rspb site, have a listing and compare!
Noisyboys3
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby Noisyboys3 » Fri Nov 13, 2015 7:04 am

Ok sorry everyone but turns out they are peacocks. Apparently they have been displaced due to some recent logging. I had listened to peacocks in my elimination process but the recording sounded different, they sounded a lot more like little owls to me! Can't help feeling disappointed...
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FlyingKiwiGirl
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby FlyingKiwiGirl » Fri Nov 13, 2015 4:17 pm

Thanks for letting us know, and at least your mystery is solved even if you are a tad disappointed.
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adrian kirk
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby adrian kirk » Wed May 10, 2017 8:10 pm

I've just joined forum because I came across this post from Russ when I was looking for possible little owl sightings/hearings. I am convinced that the bird I have had calling on my property for the last 2 nights is a little owl. We get moreporks on a regular basis so I'm familiar with their range of sounds but this call is almost identical to the little owl call on nz birds on line at http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/lit ... ird-sounds sounds 1 & 3. Having listened to it and come in and listened to the recording, it could have been the same bird. I am trying to record it but it's not playing when I have a recorder, but I will continue to try. I also heard this about 3 months ago too, in a similar area of the property. We live on a 15acre block between Dannevirke and Waipukurau and the calls are mostly around the 7.30-8pm time. I know this conversation happened 2 years ago.....have there been any further sightings in the meantime?
Adrian
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RussCannings
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby RussCannings » Tue May 16, 2017 5:33 pm

Hi Adrian,

As far as I know, there have been no recent confirmed Little Owl detections on the North Island. I should however point out that since my posting, I have subsequently seen confirmed Moreporks giving similar whistles and whines to the mystery bird I had in the King Country. Therefore I'm convinced that it what I heard (and likely what your bird is). It seems that these whistles are not well-described in most NZ field guides and online resources.

Having said that, I am confident that Little Owl will one day be confirmed on the North Island, as it's just a matter of hitching a ferry ride, so it is worth keeping eyes and ears open.

Russ Cannings
Cambridge, NZ
Ian Southey
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby Ian Southey » Tue May 16, 2017 6:13 pm

For what it's worth, there already is a North Island record from Rotorua July-August 1958 and several unconfirmed sightings between Wellington and Palmerston North. They were apparently much more common in those days and may still have been spreading. If there is a next record my guess is that it will turn up as road kill, but you never know.

Moreporks also make a yelping call quite a bit like the Little Owl calls referred to earlier, presumably the one Russ just referred to. It's not amongst the calls on NZbirdsonline and that seems to be the main problem here. Especially with all the automatic recorders out these days there should be a copy that could be found somewhere.

Ian
bennydog
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Re: Possible Little Owl on North Island

Postby bennydog » Wed May 17, 2017 11:44 am

Hello Russ, Moreporks make that sound you describe, often repeated several times. Just my two pence worth regards Neil Foster

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