At midday today, I saw a gray-morph EASTERN SCREECH-OWL basking in our nest box on Simsbury Drive in northeast Ithaca. Although I hadn't seen any screech-owl in the box since my lone winter sighting on February 20, I wasn't too surprised to see one today; it was certainly a perfect day to bliss out in the sun.
Later, I set up a scope for closer study. Now I saw flecks of red blood on the owl's bill. After a few minutes, the owl turned, looked down, and hopped into the box and out of sight. One second later, an owl again took its place at the opening. But this time the owl had no blood at all on the bill. I see only one reasonable conclusion -- there were TWO OWLS together in the box!!! I got a couple of comparison photos that poorly show the difference that I saw very clearly without the camera. https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bpL9RlRnbmOQQwVU3Arr6dMTjNZETYmyPJy0li ipFm0?feat=directlink The second owl stayed out for much of the next couple of hours. It gagged and smacked its bill several times; I was sure I was going to get a live view of this bird casting a pellet, but alas, nothing came out. On March 18, 2011, I saw two screech-owls together in this box, but I saw no sign of them for the rest of the season or year. Therefore, though of course I feel abundantly blessed and very fired up, my hopes for a full-blown nesting attempt this time remain highly guarded. Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
