Last night, we were prepared when the eastern screech owls came in ~8:30 pm. It started with a whinny heard through the open window. Then while doing laundry, I looked up to find an adult perched outside the window. With the earlier arrival time, I could clearly see a gray phase with minute ear tufts and bright yellow eyes looking at me.
What followed was a real treat. As it happens, we soon spotted 2 downy young floating through the trees, coming to land on a branch together. Watching their antics was so amazing... the exaggerated head bobbing, visits from mom, and the 2 youngsters sitting side by side were well seen from inside. They were able to fly well enough that they could be seen moving to different perches. At one point, Paul noted that there was so much activity that there had to be a 3rd fledgling somewhere, although we only confirmed 2. That was enough, though; we were smitten. I actually squealed. We watched them for about half an hour. In the context of the previous night, we now wonder if they'd brought their babies to our home to learn how to hunt easy targets (moths) in the light from our windows. After watching an adult execute a perfect grab-n-go of a large brown moth off our windowsill, we have to wonder if the previous clumsy-seeming attempts were either 1) mom showing a youngster how to hunt and purposefully diving at and missing the moth, and/or 2) a youngster's clumsy attempt to grab it (missing), which would explain the loud thud we heard/saw. I had put it down to the bird taking 3-4 tries to get the moth (glass + lights = confusion), but it makes more sense to me that she was teaching her young ones. When she did actually grab a moth after 3-4 attempts (demonstrations?) had been made, it was expertly done, nearly silent. We saw a similar technique used by Spotted Owls in California, where a mother SPOW flew at, but did not grab, an offered mouse in the presence of her baby. When the baby did not get the mouse, mom eventually got it and fed it to the baby. [Aside: offering mice is a way for researchers to determine if the mother has young somewhere, based on whether or not she eats it on the spot or carries it off to a nest.] Anyway, that is my interpretation of what could have been happening. On Sunday night, there being no more gigantic moths, the adult continued to hunt in the light of our kitchen (in the bird feeding area). The fledglings remained unseen once real darkness set in. I now worry that our flying squirrels will be on the menu, since they were conspicuously eating bark butter in said bird feeding area. Cheers, Robyn Bailey Lansing -- 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/ --
