Nature Notes: Spooky sounds for Halloween can be heard at night during autumn

• By MARLENE A. CONDON
• October 21, 2025

At this time of the year, you may be lucky enough to hear owls calling, especially the Eastern Screech Owl.

If you spend time outdoors in the early evening (just as it’s getting dark out) or in the early morning (just before the Sun comes up), listen carefully. This small bird has a very eerie call (often referred to in books as a mournful whinny), which makes it easy to imagine a ghostly spirit crying in the night. It’s quite an appropriate sound for the Halloween season.

Because screech owls hunt mainly at night, they’re not easy to find during the day, unless you spot one in a tree-cavity opening. Eastern Screech Owls are only 7 to 10 inches long. They have ear tufts, bright yellow eyes, and are more often a rusty red color, but sometimes are gray. If it’s late afternoon, the owl may linger on the rim, waiting for dusk so it can start hunting.

Screech owls usually start nesting after the weather warms a bit. If late winter is unusually warm, they may begin nesting then. They have traditionally laid eggs by April at the latest.

When egg incubation begins, both the male and the female owl share the cavity during the day. Once the young hatch, the male typically moves out but remains close by. The young hatch after about 26 days, and fledging occurs approximately 27 days later.

You can keep track of what is happening by paying attention and keeping notes. If you notice an owl using a cavity in March or April, it is most likely nesting (screech owls do not actually build a nest but lay their eggs on the bottom of the cavity).

The pair of owls is quite secretive at this time, though, so you might have to look at the entrance hole very early in the morning to know if the cavity is being used. If you write down the date, you can then calculate the approximate hatching date because the eggs are probably already laid.

A few days before your estimated date and daily thereafter, watch the box as twilight descends and/or very early in the morning before sunrise, and you will eventually see the parent owls bringing food to the young. The average brood size is four.

Until the owlets grow too big, the female will remain inside the box with them during the day. When it becomes overly crowded, she will start perching nearby on a tree, just as the male will have been doing since the eggs hatched.

The male usually perches where he can keep guard over the nest. He often calls very softly throughout the day, possibly to reassure the young that their parents are nearby, and also presumably to teach them the typical screech owl call.

Once you’ve seen the young being fed, you can calculate the approximate fledging date. On the night that they are prepared to enter the outside world, they usually all leave in reasonably prompt succession.