Today’s adventure starts with an email from the Arizona Field Ornithologists association looking for volunteers for an Elf Owl survey in Ironwood National Monument. We are very interested both because we wanted to see Elf Owls for quite some time and because we have never visited this National Monument even though it is close to Phoenix. The elf owl survey is late at night and most people plan to camp so we decide to be prepared just in case. However when we arrive the camping spots are full so we are less certain that we are going to spend the night, let’s see how the survey goes.
We have never visited the monument between others because it is difficult to access, this time we got good directions avoiding a river crossing that supposedly is not doable at this point in the season. It is quite a remote and scenic area even though the group camping spots are full, mostly due to other participants in the survey though.
We have to wait till nightfall to start the survey, obviously, so we spend that time with the rest of the group exchanging stories and getting assigned to survey groups, we are going to support an AZGFD biologist as we will follow a pipeline road for 1-2 miles listening for owls.
The survey starts with great hopes following the protocol however the only owl we hear for the longest time is a great horned owl, the assumption is that it scared all the smaller owls away. And then just as we decide to return we also hear our target bird an Elf Owl, it seems close but we cannot really notice it unfortunately. Same with the Western Screech Owls that seem slightly more common but still small and hidden.
With the survey done at around 9PM we decide to return to Phoenix instead of finding a place to camp. But before that, why not try our own survey for owls on the exact same road? And lo and behold all the owls are much more friendlier now and we can see both the Elf and Western Screech Owl close by, what a treat! Not sure why they started at sunset as the owls seem to be much more active now at night, but it is our gain that we stopped to retry. Really happy now we return to Phoenix late, late in the night and then oversleep the next day to recuperate sleep. Overall, really worthwhile and we have to try this again!
