Calling NorthernPygmy-Owl

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I found this Northern Pygmy-Owl calling from the very top of this 60-80 foot tall conifer (in the center right of the video). Since Northern Pygmy-Owls are only about 7 inches tall it cannot be seen in the video but can be clearly heard as it gives it's repetitive toot calls as well as those of a Mountain Chickadee that was roused by the touting.  It also did some trilling but it was given in short bursts so I didn't get it on the video.  This location in Chaffee County, Colorado is about 9,000 feet and though it wasn't snowing when I got there, it was snowing moderately when I took the video and these photos. With the backlighting form the overcast sky, the falling snow and the distance, these are the best photos I could get (and they are severely cropped to enlarge this little owl). Though not very clear this pic does show this owl's tail the best. I did use taped playback to solicit this owl and used my own whistled toots that it did respond to but stopped both after I located it (I could have kept using the playback to try to get the owl to come closer but I think that is too much intrusion and the owl needed to get back to it's activities of daily living--it did fly off after I got the video and photos. More pics follow SeEtta

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