I wasn’t able to make the Sunday fly out, but reports were that the owl flew out on schedule.

On Monday, there was no sign of an owl, just European Starlings hovering about the hole.  We hope that this only means that the surviving adult Eastern Screech-Owl is now sleeping in tree branches now that the trees have leaves and the weather is warmer, and that nothing has happened to the owl.

On Tuesday, European Starlings were seen in the cavity early in the morning.  By mid-day a dead owl hatchling was visible at the edge of the cavity.  The park dispatched a “cherry picker”, and a second dead hatchling was discovered in the cavity.  Both bodies were badly decomposed.

On Wednesday, a park employee found a third hatchling on the ground near the owls’ tree.  I went to the tree and the surounding area in the evening to look one more time for our adult owl.  It was nowhere to be found, which may be good news not bad.

So, a winter season of Eastern Screech-Owl watching ends with sad
results in the southern portion of the park.  The season started with four
adults, two in the Ramble and two along the West Drive.  It ended with
only one adult and a death toll of three adults and three hatchlings.