Friday, January 8, 2021

OWL SURPRISES

 

Screech Owl in our backyard, December 19th, 2016 

December 23rd, 2020 was my first full day of Christmas break, and it turned out to be quite a memorable day! 

Rob doesn't leave for work until around 1pm, so we were home together in the morning. That morning the Blue Jays were quite vocal and Rob noticed them swooping by the owl box, so we both kept a look out. Rob had seen an Eastern Screech Owl in that same box almost 4 years ago to the day, but I was at work that day and missed seeing it. That was the first time he had seen an owl our yard. 

At 9:30am it happened, Rob was downstairs, I looked out the window and there he was, another Eastern Screech Owl hanging his head out of the box! I called Rob quickly upstairs so he could see him. After a quick look, Rob went out the front door to walk around back to see if he could get a picture, but during this time, the owl ducked back down in the box to sleep the day away.

I kept a look-out all afternoon, and at 4pm he showed himself again. I texted Rob right away, and he asked me if could try to take a pic with his camera. I tried.

Eastern Screech Owl, December 23rd, 2020 

This was the best I could do. It's taken through the kitchen window, as I didn't want to flush him. I sat in the window and watched him for 2 hours. He spent a lot of time looking towards the back of the yard. Who knows what he was hearing. When it was getting dark he flew to one of the pine trees in front of our kitchen window, I could see him sitting there, and then he flew to a neighbors clothes line, before he flew off to hunt, and it was too dark for me to see him any longer. We really hope another Eastern Screech Owl visits us again.    

January 4th I was back to work, but Rob had the day off. We had got a tip of a Barred Owl being seen not far from home a few days earlier. My work day ends at 3:30pm, so we went for a dusk walk. I haven't seen a Barred Owl in many years. We were both very hopeful that we would see one on our walk. 

Barred Owl, January 4th, 2021

I spotted him while we were walking along a path in the area. If you ever see me giggling and doing a little jig while out in nature, it's a sure sign I have spotted an owl. It's not planned, all reaction. 

What a beauty!

As always, we didn't linger. A couple pics and good looks through our binoculars and we continued our walk. What a great start and end to my Christmas Break!