I saw an owl in the new tree, got out my camera and the owl was gone.  I’ll have to set up the camera before getting near the bridge the next time!

It looks like a tip from a Park Ranger may help us rediscover our missing North Woods Owls.  There is a tree near a popular bridge that has had a number of Owl sightings over the last few days.

This may be the new nesting cavity for the pair.  It was possible we had guessed too soon about when they started nesting.  The new location makes sense since it is near the fledge sites of 2005 and 2006.

The West Side owls continue to be in stealth mode.  The male was reported to been visible briefly during the day when a squirrel went near their cavity.  I think they’re going to be impossible to photograph until later in the spring.

One of the Pool owls cavities had a squirrel come into the hole at dusk. Since this is where I had though they had laid eggs, this is very confusing.  This is a real puzzle.

There wasn’t a fly out this evening.  Neither owl flew out, and like last night we wondered why.  We searched the area and found nothing.

Then about an hour after the usual fly out, two raccoons made their terrible cry and the female owl popped up to investigate.  I missed capturing the first pop up as I had already put away my equipment, but I captured images during two more periods of raccoon crying.

No one flew out this evening.  Have they moved?  Is something wrong, or is it just the cold?

Tonight, we only got to see the male owl.  He flew out, landed on a nearby branch, preened and then went north.  We looked for the female, but she did not come out of her cavity.