On June 21, 1941, at about 9 p.m., two Harvard University students stood in the Clingman's Dome parking area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They listened intently as an uninterrupted series of bell-like whistles poured forth out of the still, balsam-scented air. The notes, repeated at a rate of one or two per second, sounded for all the world like a squeaky wheel turning, or like the sound made by an old woodsman hand-sharpening his crosscut saw somewhere in the night woods.

By this observation, the known breeding range our smallest owl was extended by more than two hundred and fifty miles to the south. The Saw-whet Owl, named for its distinctive breeding call, had previously been thought to nest only as far south as Cranberry Glades in West Virginia.

The Saw-whet Owl is primarily a creature of the great boreal forests of Canada. However, like many other components of the spruce-fir ecosystem, this nocturnal predator also inhabits spruce forests throughout the southern Appalachians. At Milepost 423.7, the Blue Ridge Parkway passes near the southem limit of the Saw-whet's eastem breeding range at Tanasee Bald.

The call of the Saw-whet Owl may be heard on calm evenings between March and June along those stretches of the Parkway which pass near upper elevation spruce-fir forests. Calling is heaviest during April and May. The Mt. Mitchell area and the portion of the Parkway between Mt. Pisgah and Richland Balsam are known to contain breeding populations of Saw-whet Owls.

Although it is probably the most common owl of the spruce-fir zone along the Parkway, the Saw-whet has rarely been observed. During daylight hours it roosts in thick evergreen cover, usually on interior branches of vigorous young Red Spruce or Fraser Fir trees. Saw-whets nest in cavities, frequently those excavated by Flickers or other woodpeckers, although a naturally occurring Saw-whet Owl nest has never been observed in the Southern Appalachians. You are much more likely to hear than see our smallest and rarest owl. The unmistakable call, a continuous series of single notes, may be maintained for an hour or more at a time. If you find yourself enjoying a sunset along an upper elevation Parkway overlook this spring, and if there are spruce trees in the vicinity and the air is calm, just listen for the squeaky wheels turning in the night.