Nature can throw you a left hook sometimes.  Today, it felt like the left hook was followed up by a knock out punch.

The female was found sunning back at Glen Span Arch.  Her old cavity, the one we suspected had become a nest, was found to have a squirrel in it.  The squirrels didn’t leave her alone at the bridge either.  A squirrel came into the tree and forced her out on an open branch for about half an hour.

The knock out punch was delivered after dusk however.  The male continued to be missing, even after the female called and called (using a trill rather than her normal whinny), before giving up and going hunting.  While it’s possible he’s just taking a break, given how close this pair has been, I suspect he’s dead. 

One of the mysteries is, did he get injured defending the Bridle Path cavity or did he get injured and the female couldn’t defend the cavity on her own?

After what looked like two weeks of nesting behavior, tonight we had quite a shock. 

Arriving earlier than normal, we saw the female on a small branch outside the cavity in bright light just after sunset.   The last time this happened, she had lost a cavity to a raccoon by Glen Span Arch.

After a few minutes, she flew into the triangle south of the bypass road, and then went into The Loch.

This is the fourth night we haven’t seen or heard the male.  We’re trying to come up with a positive explanation, but haven’t found one yet.

The movie includes a pellet being coughed up.

Saturday Morning Update:  The female was sunning in her Glen Span Arch cavity. The cavity she abandoned was being mobbed by two Blue Jays.  Their mobbing caused a squirrel to pop out of the cavity.  It would be ironic one of the factors caused Screech Owls to disappear from the park in addition to car traffic, city lights, poisons and pesticides, was an over population of squirrels due to people feeding them. 

The disappearance of the male is now a real mystery.  I saw a squirrel go to bed, way after dark around 7 p.m. earlier this week.  Could something have happened?  We should know in a few days.

Tonight, we only saw and heard the female again.  She quickly left her cavity, went into the triangle area and perched in a tree.  She then went down to the ground and we lost her.  I suspect she returned to the cavity, but we didn’t hear any calls from her.

The mystery of where the male is continues.

The last two nights, I’ve spent a few hours each night at the cavity.  I must have missed the female’s break last night, but saw it tonight.  Tonight, she only left the nest for two minutes to defecate.  I did hear her both nights calling softly from the cavity.

No sign of the male.

Tonight the fly out was at 6:30.  The fly out time seems to be getting later.  The delay, which seemed at first to be connected to the quieting of the nearby squirrels, may be due to some other factor.

In Gehlbach’s The Eastern Screech Owl he observed that initial calls were very late during courting, and became progressively early as incubation and nesting occurred.  It will be interesting to see what the fly out dates are over the next few weeks.

There was debris in the mouth of the cavity tonight.  It was unclear if it was feathers from the owls or prey.

The female stayed out for about ten minutes before returning to the nest.

Tonight, the female came out of the cavity and was greeted by the male at the normal time.  The spent a few mintues together in the triangle above the bypass road. She returned to the nest and he went off into The Loch area.

We went down to The Loch area to look for him, without success, and returned to the cavity.  When we arrived both owls were out in the open, he soon took off and she went back inside. 

We could only guess as to what had happened while we were away.  It was unclear if food had been delivered.