Watching a bird nest over a season is a thrill, especially when it is a raptor. Jeff Grayless shared this experience with us in these photographs of barred owls. The nest was 40 feet above the ground on one side of a narrow ravine, a straight camera shot at eye level from the other side.
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| Out of the nest |
Jeff got to watch the chicks develop and fledge. The lighter colored one hung out by the nest opening while the darker on was more shy, hanging back. The parents would fly in with supper, frequently, a feathered Grubhub. He got the see one parent fly in with a mouse in its beak. You can get a glimpse of their family life in Jeff's video here on this video.
Watching the chicks as they fledged must have been a real treat and is an opportunity for citizen science.* According to All About Birds "Young Barred Owls can climb trees by grasping the bark with their bill
and talons, flapping their wings and walking their way up the trunk."
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| The shy one |
We hear their hooting call, “Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?” regularly in the evening along Bull Creek where the sound carries far in the valley. We will frequently hear two or three calling back and forth. Even my crude attempt at calling back will frequently start a longer conversation with one in the distance.
These are crepuscular and nocturnal hunters, watching from a perch or gliding silently over the fields and forest floor. Silently is not an exaggeration as seen in this video of the flight of a barn owl. Special features of their wings and feathers are explained here.
Barred owls eat a wide variety of animals, mostly small rodents and squirrels but also will take occasional birds, frogs, salamanders, snakes, lizards, and even occasional insects. The oldest known barred owl specimen was over 24 years old. They do not migrate and tend to spend their life within a 6 mile radius in most cases. The next generation should be calling soon.
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*Cornell Ornithology Lab has a Nest Watch program for citizen scientists who observe and record data.
