Very Wet Owlett

As some of you may know, Nashville experienced a rain last weekend like we have not seen in this area in 70 some years. At our home in Hendersonville, we received more than 15" of rain within 48 hours - unheard of!! Luckily for us, we live well up the ridge and halfway up a hill in a hollow. This location protects us from high winds and also from most of the impacts of heavy rain. Our front yard (near the road) was a river by Saturday night, and we were unable to leave our home due to the flooded creek.

Because of our inability to leave, we were also lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of the Owletts that fledged 3 days earlier. This is the first time that we have ever seen live chicks after they have left the nest. We did, however only see one. I fear the worst for the other...

Anyway, here is the chick that we saw on Sunday....
He was VERY wet! Cute, but wet. :)



If there is any way that you can help with the recovery, either with money or volunteer time, consider doing so. Here is a great place to start.

FLEDGED!!

OMG! I am sitting here at the foot of my bed and this is what I am seeing when I look out the window:
These little guys are a full 8 days earlier than last year. Generally, we look to Mother's Day for our Barred Owls to fledge... but the wonderful weather has allowed Mom and Dad to be able to provide very well for these chicks. We have seen them taking in LOTS of Chipmunks - and that is perfectly fine with us!
They actually hunt in our birdfeeding area - they are afterall birds. :)

They sit in this one tree and then off they go up the hill to catch some food for their babies.

Two days ago this is all I could see:
One little Owl peeking at me from the safety of his ~up to this point~ world. Occasionally, I would see some fluttering in the background or another little rounded head jumping up behind him... but for the most part - just the top of his head and eyes.

This morning there was a new surprise when I woke up. Little Owlett almost all the way out of the box:

And his sibling was adjacent to the box on a branch!! VERY BRAVE!! Look at the Carolina Wren in the forground of this picture -- talk about brave! She does not want this mean ol owl anywhere near her nest site.

So, here they are. Ready to hit the big wide world. Hard to believe that they have completed their nesting already. This year is already flying by.....

Too Excited for Words!

Ok, I can not contain myself!! Today I scooted home a bit early from the store so that I could watch a movie that I had never seen... "The Runaway" 1961 starring Caesar Romero - excellent movie, but it costars a Greyhound so I may be a bit biased. But I digress. I went upstairs and just happened to look out the window to see if there was any activity at the Barred Owl box. Lo and behold, there was a Barred Owl chick peaking out of the box. These first pics were taken through the window. Not great quality, but s/he sure is cute anyway.

I really wanted to get a bit higher quality pics for you all so cranked open the window, and s/he didn't seem to mind too much - though you can see the air of wariness in each of these pics.

The end of the movie came and I decided to take the dogs for a walk, and upon returning, it was apparent that this little Owlett was getting ready to experience their world more closely. I ran back upstairs to try to get some more pics. It was about 7:30pm here in the woods -- so a very low light situation for picture taking... oh and I have yet to read the manual that came with my camera so was unsure of the setting that I needed. I LOVE that you can see their little feet in the weirdly blue picture. CUTE!

I hope that this little Owlett will remain in the box tonight, as we saw two coyotes last Monday about 100' behind the house. Owletts, when they fledge, will climb out of the nesting box, and climb a bit up the tree. They will then flutter down to an adjecent tree and climb back up to continue to do this until they are into a safer place to hang out. Unfortunately, last year our little fledgling ended up on the ground (which is not uncommon) and all we found was a little piece of wing - it was very sad. :-( All that work by the parents, to come to that end....

Rainy Day Clean-Up

There is nothing like a rainy morning to motivate you to look to see what pics you have not posted, that you clearly intended to.... OK, that is a lie. A rainy morning does not motivate me to do really anything but go back to bed. :) I did, however, pick up the laptop and memory card to see what was there. I found a wealth of fun stuff. We will start with nesting, though it really looks like everyone is having pretty good success along these lines.

The Chickadees really got busy at the Nashville Wild Birds Unlimited store. I snapped these quick pictures a couple of weeks ago, but have not been back recently to see if they have fledged yet. Based upon this pic, I would say that the chicks were 2-3 days old that day. If that is the case, they should fledge any day now. This box is what is considered to be a Sparrow repellent box -- the theory is that it is not only smaller than the Sparrows desire, but also allows too much light into the interior. Whatever the reason, I have never had problems with Sparrows in this style nesting box. It is called a Kentucky Style Slot Box... this particular box was made by the professor that developed the style, Dr. Wayne Davis. The birds Thank You, as do we, Wayne!

This is the Bluebird Nest at my home. As of yesterday, the eggs had still not hatched.

In other NESTING NEWS... It has been confirmed that my Barred Owls have a nestling in the aforementioned Very Dangerous Nesting Box. Just Monday, we saw one of the parents taking a pretty good sized rodent into the box to feed their chick. All this rain concerns me, as I can not believe that that chick is at all dry. Kent reminds me constantly that if they had nested in a natural hole, it is unlikely that the conditions would be much better. For good or for bad, that is where they are. The chick should be fledging in the coming week.

Front Row Friday!

Today, at the bank, I came across a beautiful Cooper's Hawk hunting the road. Using my car as a blind, I caught these pretty good pics. I am sure that the people in the drive through could NOT figure out what this weird woman was doing creeping her car slowly, slowly slowly around the parking area. In the end, I think the time spent paid off.

When I arrived home, again I saw the Owl - just hanging out, so I snapped these pics:

then went inside to write a quick entry... So here we are. I had just begun and crackle, crash... huh?? What's that!? The Barred Owl was in hot persuit of something... well... someone. When s/he got back up on a branch it was apparent that they were not successful. It is so hard for them to catch food - I am always amazed when they make a catch.

Wake Up Call!!

I was pleased to hear the song of the Wood Thrush this morning upon waking. This species has a tough row to hoe, being one of our neo tropical migrants. Their population is on a sharp decline due to loss of habitat both here and in their wintering grounds.

Another quick note.... Seems that the Barred Owls have chosen to nest in the "in very poor shape" owl box that they have nested in in the past. :-/ As stated earlier, I am very concerned about the condition of the box.

Barred Owl

Woke up this morning to this view (well, without the yellow circle). There I saw a Barred Owl just hanging out, I assume, looking for a quick bite. I hurriedly went to grab my camera and s/he was obliging and stayed where s/he was. The pair that I have been seeing was very vocal last night, and I certainly hope that they decide to nest around here again. We have had them nest in the nest box that we provided, in the past, and they were successful for a couple of years. That box needs to be replaced and I hate that it is still hanging on the tree in the despicable state that it is in. The roof has rotted and I am afraid that it will fall any day -- if that were to happen with someone nesting in there, I would be devistated. Taking care of this is on my list of things to do this week. Need to get a tree trimmer in to remove a dangerous limb and while he is here, I will have to ask him to remove the old box and replace it with a new and improved one.

I love this site for information, including a web cam, on Barred Owls. It's a bit "old school" but has wonderful pix inside the nest box and great sound .wav files. Enjoy!