The owls in the 'hood...

Eastern Screech Owlets

Andy and I are creatures of habit.  We walk the same route every night when we walk the dogs.  This late spring was a bit different, though.  I wanted to check on the flowers to the south of our house and so we changed our route a bit.  Several nights, along our more unusual route,  we heard a strange sound. We knew it was from an owl, but which one?  We poured over bird books and the Internet.  One night we got a glimpse of some small owlets but they were too high in a tree to ID.  For a week or more we included that area into our nightly walk.  Most nights we could hear them but still no positive ID.   Then Andy took a quick jog by that area in the morning.  Hark!  Owlets!  Eastern Screech Owls to be precise.  We photographed these two a couple times (and their parents, below, were never far).  One evening we saw 5-6 babies but it was too dark to photograph.  They are gone from the area, now,  but their memory will keep me going until next year when we hope hey will be back!

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Female Eastern Screech Owl

Male Eastern Screech Owl