Adrian Mestecăneanu, Radu Gava
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Asio otus, winter census, Argeş.
In this paper, the authors present the results of the Long-eared Owl (Asio otus) census performed in 2014 - 2015 winter in the Argeş County (Romania). The exact place of the birds agglomerations, the characters of the roosting place, degrees of protection against the wind, the direction of the roosting place in relation to the closest building, endangering and disturbing factors, the disturbing degree, other information regarding the roosting place were analysed. Four places of roosting were identified in Suseni, Rociu, Negraşi and Slobozia. 0.94 individuals per km of road, 14.11 individuals per roosting place and 0.067 roosting places per km of road were estimated. In the Romanian Plain of the Argeş County, there are in average 47.98 individuals/100 km2 (3.4 roosting places/100 km2) and approximately 655 individuals (gathered in ca. 46 roosting places) and in the entire Argeş County, there are ca. 800-1100 individuals and 60-80 roosting places. The mean of the owls’ number per tree in the roosting place was 6.57. It has been found that between November and March, the number of individuals generally grows as the air temperature raises and generally decreases as the depth of the snow bed increases. The number of individuals correlated the best with the average air temperature in the previous 30 days and with the average depth of the snow bed in the previous 30 days.
