After last year’s tragedy with the bee swarm, I was greatly concerned that our Eastern Screech Owl pair would not return, but they are such dedicated parents that they have indeed begun working on another family. They are using as their nest box the more recently built owl house that has a camera in it. And this year, instead of the owl cam showing squirrels inside, it actually shows the making of an owl family! Yesterday the camera verified that there are 4 eggs inside. To my knowledge, this is the largest family they’ve started, assuming all the eggs hatch.

Mama Owl spends most of her time on the eggs, and I believe Papa Owl is bringing her food. In this image, she moved up to the doorway but did not exit, leading me to believe that a cockroach pizza was just delivered. FYI, this is night-time view and thus black and white — at some point I hope to share colorful photos of the family’s progress. Happy!

My last post was about camouflage, but the truth is, sometimes even the best camouflage can fail you, and you become lunch (well, in this case, a dusk-time breakfast for the baby owls inside the nest box). Here one of our screech owl parents is delivering to their owlets what appears to be a walking stick insect.

It always amazes me what incredible nocturnal hunters owls are, but especially screech owls. It’s easy to imagine larger owls hunting bigger active animals, such as rats, rabbits, and even skunks. But screech owls bring home caterpillars, worms, lizards (including diurnal ones that theoretically shouldn’t be quite as active at night but perhaps are), scorpions, centipedes, and apparently stick insects. Sure, I can still imagine some of those being reasonable prey, but caterpillars? Some of them barely move (relatively speaking) and often blend in among bark, foliage, etc.

Owls, I am impressed and quite jealous of your superior eyesight and stealth ability. I shall continue to watch you exhibit your skills for those few minutes at dusk when I can still see you before the darkness takes over and my limited nighttime vision fails me. Oh, to be an owl!

Edit: My friend Justin reminded me that this video of awesomeness exists. For your viewing pleasure, and thanks to its creators:

This is a mostly happy story of our owls, with a little bit of “awwwww” mixed in. Our adorable owls recently fledged, always a sad but proud time for us. It might have happened on Mother’s Day (we weren’t home that evening), but I think it actually happened the night before, because that night we could tell the babies were starting to lean wayyy out of their box. So that I (nor Mama Owl) don’t feel hurt, I’ll assume it was the night before Mother’s Day.

Let me show you the last few pictures we were able to get of the owls before they fledged, and then I’ll show you the big event of the day. Taking an afternoon peek… So used to my presence that I get to take a close-up… Parent leaning way out, moments from flying off…

Peekaboo pair… Dinner time, parents hard at work…

Smushed sibling, determined to get a look outside….

The nest box has been empty for a few days now, and as usually we didn’t get to see their big venture into the “real world.” But we wished them well and knew they’d become fierce hunters in their own right.

Today, however, my neighbor contacted me to say that he found a baby owl on the ground in his yard. I wasn’t home at the time. But he watched it fly over toward our front yard, so he assumed it was fine. When I got home, I walked over to where he thought the little owl had landed, but I didn’t see any sign of it in the trees or shrubs. As my neighbor and I were talking, however, I saw what looked like an odd, round rock near the base of a tree. It was the little owl, sleeping.

Of course, it woke up when we came a little closer. Normally, you’d let a healthy baby owl stay where it is so that mama and papa can continue to care for it. But when we looked at the little owl, we realized it was having trouble opening one eye.

We also realized that it wouldn’t stand a chance against the neighborhood cats, especially if it was staying on the ground. I called Wildlife Rescue, and they wanted us to bring it in so they could assess the eye. If it wasn’t too bad, they’d put in some antibiotic drops and have me bring it back to its parents. If the eye needed monitoring, they’d care for it until it could be released.What a cutie, even with one eye closed!

It being the middle of the day, the sleepy little owl stayed calm while we talked quietly to it and took a few pictures. Then it was time to get all packed up and ready to go. I brought our wildlife carrier over (yes, yes, it’s a cat carrier, but don’t tell the birds that), and we placed it close by. Then my neighbor gently guided the little owl in — it simply walked right inside. How sweet was that!

Since I had a meeting, the little owl snoozed in a dark bathroom in my house until I got back, then my friend and fellow Habitat Steward Jan and I drove him over to Wildlife Rescue. They decided the eye needed to be monitored, so we had to leave him there. Luckily, someone else had just brought in another pair of screech owl fledglings, so our little owlet will get to have other fuzzy owlets by his side. They were thawing mice to feed them as we left.

The wonderful folks at Wildlife Rescue tell me that they will try to release him near our area — something they do for raptors when possible so they are close to their original home. Maybe we’ll get to see our little buddy again someday! If not, take care, sweet little owl!

While we haven’t settled on a name for our parent owls yet, we’re going with Bob and Weave at the moment. They’ve been with us a few years now, and members of the family should have names — why we haven’t done this before, I have no idea.

My husband and I have been enjoying sitting outside during the transition from dusk to dark, watching as baby owls poke their heads out of the nesting box and waiting for Bob and Weave to swoop in with the first meals of the night. Both of us were there last night with our cameras, but then I wanted to kick myself when I discovered that my camera battery was dead. So I instead got the binoculars and used my “owl eyes” to spot the parents and study the owlets’ behavior to help my husband capture pictures with his camera. This one is my favorite — Bob and Weave being the great parents that they are! I’m reasonably confident that Mama is on the upper branch, and Papa is the one swooping in. Bob seems to be smaller and darker than Weave. Can you see that both have food ready for the babies?

One owlet was sticking so far out of the box last night that I worried a sibling was going to shove it out the door. I’m hoping this rainy weather we’re having will keep them in the box another couple of days. We’re having fun watching all this!

It’s official — Mama Screech Owl has moved out of the nesting box to make room for her growing baby/babies. We still don’t know how many we have, but we do know they are ADORABLE.

I am in love. Look at that face!

One curious owlet bravely peeked out in the late afternoon — getting its first view (as far as we know) of the daytime world.

Surprisingly, it even kept a lookout when my husband ventured near — once upon a time, Michael would barely step one foot out the back door and the owls would hide immediately.  I guess after three years, the parent owls have decided Michael must be safe enough, and the owlets must be following suit. Me, they’ve always been remarkably tolerant of, even with me down below taking pictures.

As dusk turned to night, feeding commenced. Impatient, the owlet above claimed a good waiting spot.

And Mama and Papa obliged.

Kudos to my husband for capturing some great shots despite the dark and working with an uncooperative camera. We’re looking forward to monitoring baby owl time each day. We know we only have them a short time longer before they’ll fledge — we must enjoy them while we can!

Last post I gave a big-eyed view of what this post would be about. Let’s take a closer look at two nesting mama owls (and a fuzzy baby).

Athena is the mama Great Horned Owl that nests in a stone planter above the entrance walkway at the Wildflower Center. She is becoming quite the rock star, no pun intended, and she’s remarkably blasé about the stares and camera clicks from visitors walking below her. In the cooler mornings, only mama owl is visible, but as the sun warms things up……the owlets start to stir. This year Athena has two owlets. I snapped pictures while I was at the Wildflower Center plant sale last weekend, and while I could see both owlets, only one was photo-accessible.

It’s hard not to be enamored of that fuzzy little Muppet face.

I lucked out later when one of the owlets got braver, resting in front of mama. The second owlet was moving around quite a bit but staying just about out of sight– if you look very closely, you can see a hint of the hidden owlet behind the plant (it helps to compare the two photographs directly above).

It won’t be long and these lovely owlets will be ready to leave the nest and start hunting for skunks and other critters on their own. Fierce hunters, Great Horned Owls are!

Back at home, we are eagerly awaiting a glimpse of the baby screech owl (or owls) in our owl box.

I have to say, our mama Screech Owl is a very good mother.

She’s calm most of the time, not minding me taking pictures or the rambunctious dogs playing below her, but she is ever alert.

One time while I visited her, something in the sky caught mama’s attention, and I saw her go on guard. When she suddenly ducked into the house, I looked to see what alarmed her. The shadow flying overhead turned out to be a black vulture, but mama Screech Owl was not taking any chances.

Mama Screech has had successful nests in our owl boxes (she’s used both in different years) for a few years now. I was out the other day, right at dusk, and I couldn’t see her in the house. But I could hear strange sounds coming from inside — baby or babies asking for food! And while I stood listening in the near-dark, mama owl whooshed overhead into the hole. I wish I’d seen what food she was delivering — I’m always curious about that.

With luck, we’ll get to see her young, and with some more luck, we’ll even be able to share a picture or two. Owl keep trying!  🙂