the owls

Remember this guy?

Last February I wrote about my discovery of the Great Horned Owls that were living in our palm trees. You can read about it here and here. (Click on the words "here" that are highlighted to read those posts). That particular owl was really photogenic and would sit and stare down at me while I had my camera pointing up at him. I figured out that there were a pair of them and hoped that maybe we would see some baby owls. We never did but they stuck around for quite a long time and "whoo'd" us to sleep at night. Sometimes they would get pretty noisy.

So, research says, they mate for life, but I am not sure if they come back to their same nesting trees. I'm not really sure if they even have a nest in our trees or if they just sit up there and hang out. I do know that when they get startled and fly off, if you are not ready for it they can scare the heck out of you. And, I also know that there are two back again this year. I don't know if they are the same two or not.

During the day, there is only one owl that is usually up in one set of trees. Just at dusk the other owl shows up and sits up in the other set of palm trees. I assume that the one that is there during the day is the female. She's not been as photogenic as those that I captured on my camera last year. In fact, she has been really frustrating me. Every time I hear her whooing, I sneak out with my camera. When I get just a wee bit close to the tree she takes off with a big flap of her giant wings. Then, later, I would hear both of them "talking" back and forth with each other. By then, it would be too dark to get any pictures.

If you have been following this blog you know that we have had our share of desert creatures visit our yard. It's creepy enough during the day, but the creep factor gets bumped up a notch at night. We hear the coyotes all the time and of course the owls. There was another squawking sound at night that we just couldn't figure out. Last winter, I could hear a faint owl hoot after I would hear the squawk. So I googled and found out that the squawk sound is actually the female and the hoot that follows is the male. They do this "talk" during mating season and also when the female has a nest of owl babies, or "kids", as they are called. She makes this noise to let the male know he needs to bring food. These two owls this year have been really "talking" it up like this every night.

So, since I hadn't been able to get any photos of this pair, I decided to try and get a night recording of them chatting back and forth. Besides, I wanted to make this owl post really thorough AND really long. For your listening pleasure, click on the black screened video below to hear these two call out to each other. The screen is black because it was at night.

Pretty cool isn't it?

Now, I was very determined to get a picture of this elusive female owl. So, the next time I heard her I went out with my little camera and put it on record. I thought maybe it would look less intrusive then my large lens pointing up at her. Up until this point I had not even gotten this close to the trees before she would fly off. I could hear her whooing up there, but I could not see where she was at. This next video is that moment when I was trying to at least catch her on tape if she again flew off right away.

Yep, she flew off pretty quickly, but as you heard...I was pretty happy to at least see her and where she was sitting. That "meeting" was enough, I guess, for her to be more comfortable with me being close to her. So, a couple days later I tried again. This time, with my big zoom lens in hand I snuck over to the tree. I knew right where to look and she stayed right there and let me snap a few pictures before she flew off. She wasn't going to look at me though, so I tried a little "talkin' " of my own.

"Whoooo".
"Whoooo. Oh hello owl".

It worked. She looked right at me and I snapped the picture. Then, off she flew. This gal is a real chatty one. Every day she is out there, so I decided to try to get another video of her chatting. But, every time I pushed record she would be really quiet. Patient and determined, I tried a new tactic. I decided it was time to "talk" to her again. Ahem. Don't laugh. Okay, you probably will.

Yes, that is me.

The Owl Whisperer.

Now, because you are interested. You've heard of owl pellets, right? Every day the owl eats some little yummy rodents, birds or rabbits. The stomach separates what can be digested into digested waste that comes out the... waste end. Then, all the undigestible stuff, like fur, feathers and bone gets regurgitated or "coughed" up in a pellet. And yes, it is evident that they are coughing up these pellets and dropping them down to our yard below. It seems that the male, if I am assuming which one is which correctly, coughs up more pellets than the female.

I thought you might like to see what one looks like. Some of the furry stuff had probably been "washed" away by the sprinklers. But, this way you can see what's inside. Yummy huh?

You're welcome.

Fondly,

The Owl Whisperer

note: special thanks to my daughter Rachel for teaching me some new tricks with this post. It wouldn't have happened without her help.