EXCITING OWL EVENT

Eastern screech owl, one of a pair, photographed before fly-out on Dec. 2, 2007, by Bruce Yolton http://www.urbanhawks.blogs.com
Two days ago On Tuesday, December 4, Marianne Girds was the only regular owl-watcher at the recently discovered screech-owl cavity in a location owl etiquette prevents me from specifying. The reason for the secrecy is, as always, the protection of the owls from those who would bring them harm. Owls roost in the daytime and are particularly vulnerable to human predation

As you may have read in a previous posting here, there is a pair of owls in that cavity. Sometimes the owls roost in separate cavities, but they always meet up after fly-out.. Marianne sent an e-mail reporting on what she saw that evening. The subject line was: EXCITING OWL EVENT. And exciting it was!

She wrote:

The London Plane cavity did not show any owl until 4:45PM - it was very windy and cold...At 4:57PM the owl flew out to a nearby bare tree SE from the London Plane, AND at that very moment the second Screech Owl arrived (from the East) to meet on the same branch where a MATING took place immediately at the count of 1- 2- 3- . They only stayed for a brief moment and left together flying low West towards the big Spruce.

I was so very sorry that you and the rest of the 'Gang' had to miss this happy event. However, there will be more of the same in the near future.

Happy owling !

Marianne

PS from Marie: According to Jean Dane, the owls flew out about thirty or so minutes after sunset last night -- December 5, 2007. But because Bruce was there with his camera, they refrained from engaging in any X-rated activities while in view of an audience.