Nature's beauty is not always at eye level!!!

What a day!
The temperature has been hovering around 82 degrees...it's always a bit cooler on the Gulf.
I've been in & out of my pool for most of the day, between visits to DG...putzing around it, watering plants and trimming things up.
As I sat in my pool chair, I noticed a couple dead palm fronds that I had missed. I also spied a large bloom just about ready to explode and throw it's 'cargo' into the pool.
Then I spotted something else.
"Hmmmm! What in the world is that ol' brown thang hanging in that palm?"

I get a little closer, pole trimmer in hand, when I come face-to-face with this!

But wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's TWO!!!!!!!!!!

Good find Lellie .
Great PIcs .

This just made my day!!!!
No...my YEAR!!!!!!!!!

I feel so blessed.
Here I've been reading everyone's tales of spotting owls in their yards and I had none.
I'm just so excited!...but I do feel a little bad about waking them up, by hey!...they didn't seem to mind my fussing around all day...hehehe!

The smaller of the two, on the left, has a bent ear...*awwwwwwwwwwww!
I've already nicknamed it "Oheee"...LOL

This message was edited Apr 30, 2007 3:15 PM

So cute! Congratulations!!!

If you want to keep them build (or buy) them a Wood Duck house and hang it about 10' - 12' up on a treee of your choice. I've hosted both the gray and red morphs of Eastern Screech Owls for years this way. They LOVE Wood Duck boxes! If you need plans to build one I have a link.

Oh, I'd love to keep them around!
I'm wondering if I could maybe purchase one online?
If not, I'll see if I can locate a company nearby who carries them.
I'm wondering if WBU does..there's one in Sarasota.
Thank you...thank you for the tip.

Stelco...who would have thought there'd be so many different styles!
Ack!!!

I'd love that link you have...................

I found one such link...they talk about putting in wood shavings since ducks don't carry in nesting material.
Does that hold true for owls as well?

I honestly couldn't find much info on their nesting habits.

This message was edited Apr 30, 2007 9:34 PM

Oh how great! Aren't they afraid of people?

They “tolerate” people. About 20 yards is the limit for mine. But, there are exceptions. If you open a nest box they often play “if I can’t see you, you can’t see me”.

I clean out my boxes every fall (when I remember). I add fresh pine needles a couple of inches deep and make sure that drain holes are open. I don’t believe that they don’t bring in nesting material and I know that they bring in live blind snakes to reduce parasite load in their nests and/or roosting boxes.

Here are the house plans:
http://www.50birds.com/D50BH6.htm

Sorry about dinner waiting in the photo. The other chunk of stuff is a “pellet” that they regurgitate made up of non-digestible bones, fur, feathers . . .

Here's the red "phase" or "morph".

Lellie - beautiful photos, thanks for sharing, you must feel positively giddy over your new residents, I know I would.

Stelco can you expand on "I know that they bring in live blind snakes to reduce parasite load in their nests and/or roosting boxes." sounds intriguing.......

Here's one quote:

"Perhaps the oddest part of screech owls' behavior is their association with blind snakes, which have been found in the owls' nests. These odd snakes, which resemble large earthworms, normally appear only at night. Gehlbach and others have observed that the owls bring these small snakes to their nests and release them. The snakes feed on the larval and pupal stages of ants and flies that live in the nest debris, reducing the number of insects competing for the headless mice, dead beetles, and other tidbits cached by the owls. Gehlbach's studies suggest that the snakes actually contribute to the owls' breeding success."

Source (and another nest box plan):
http://www.audubonmagazine.org/backyard/backyard0201.html

Thanks Stelco - now I have learned something new today, I appreciate it. I thought maybe the owl blinded a normal sanke and brought it back - that makes way more sense. Thanks again. You guys have some good looking owls.........I am soooooooooo envious my house has an old weeping willow when I bought it had a lot of big dead limbs on it I would get the occasional owl and hawk on these limbs that I guess where vantage points (tallest tree in the hood) well my brother doing me a favor chopped them all off, I had asked him to leave a certain dead limb that was not in danger of falling on the house, garage or electric line. Unfortunately he forgot (he does not understand why I think they are so cool) - have not seen a hawk or owl since;+(

Build a Wood Duck house and they will come.

Just got chickens, not sure if I want them that close by. I bought a eglu from Omelet because I have NO carpentary skills (keep telling myself that - actually just scared of power saws - bit of a Klutz). They sure are pretty though.

Well, that's probably a good thing. I just checked and your state doesn't have either the eastern or western species.

Stelco...thanks for sharing...
Awesome photos.............