I walked the length of the Road this morning but didn't turn up anything special. At the top of the road calling in the canyon below the eucalyptus grove I heard what sounded very much like a Northern Pygmy Owl.
I have heard Pygmy Owl on Farren Road before, but it was calling from the Oak canyon below the EAST side of the road, which I believe is called Tecolote Canyon. Brad Hacker verified for me that N. Pygmy Owl has been found there.
I couldn't really assess the habitat below the west side of the road at the point I heard the call, so I don't know if it is appropriate for Pygmy Owl. I have been checking range maps and find I cannot rule out Merriam's Chipmunk, which has a very similar call. I don't have Merlin on my iPhone and could only compare the call with what is in the Sibley Bird app. However, I have also checked the Sibley app's call for Pygmy Owl against an on-line call of a Merriam's Chipmunk and found the latter to be HIGHER pitched than either the app or my memory of the call. (If I had been thinking, I would have recorded the call I heard this morning!)
Any comments or suggestions including past experiences that other birders may have had with Pygmy-Owl type calls in the Farren Road region would be appreciated.
Thank you,Florence Sanchez
PS--There was no apparent reaction to the call from the birds in the eucalyptus grove, which included Yellow-rumps and American Robins. I played the call on the Sibley app for a brief period and I did get some alarm response to it from both of those species.
