Urban Hawks

It might be April, but it was still cold. Jean and I braved 32 degree weather.  7:20 was the first pop-up of an owl in the hole.  Everything was normal until 7:35 when a Red-tailed Hawk flies within feet of the hole, carrying a rat.

We don’t see an owl in the hole until 8pm!  The larger of the two adults, Trident sits in hole and calls loudly for a long time.  We only see the parents leave hole, 8:10 (Trident) and 8:11 (Herringbone).  I wonder if they told the kid to stay home tonight!

Jean, Lee, Noreen and I watched the fly out.  All three owls were in the cavity.  The fledgling flew out early and had to deal with two alarmed Robins, who made a racket around it.  After all three flew out, they went northeast.  One adult stayed behind for a awhile.  They then were in the area near the two pine trees the owls used two years ago.  We heard more calling and the owls went across the drive.

It was cold and windy, with partly cloudy skies.  Owl watchers included Marie, then, Chris, then Lee, Jimmy, Noreen, Mary Ann, and Jean.

We saw one adult, Trident and the fledgling in the cavity trading places.  The fledgling few out five to ten minutes before the adult, who stretches a wing before flying out.  The wing stretch before fly out is a rarity.

After the fly out of the adult, the third owl which doesn’t have stripes on its forehead, so I’m calling it Herringbone comes in from somewhere.  All fly rapidly northeast.  A song is heard.   I think it’s the adult love song. Jean, the fledgling crying for food.  She may have gotten it right, as the adults may have begun to let Junior get its own food, rather than feeding it.

Jean and I go down into the Loch, down north path from road, then north a little on the west path.
Two owls are on a low branch, that then go towards the stream.  The “path” was too wooded and thick to safely follow them in the dark, so we called it a night.

It was a rainy and misty evening tonight.  One one owl was seen by Jean and I.  It moved quickly and we lost in just after fly out which was around 7:45.