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| Our Resident Hawk |
You may recall that last summer we saw an encounter between a Barn Owl and a Hawk. The Owl had been chased into the trees and the branch could not sustain its weight. It flipped upside down, still clinging to the branch, and fell to the ground with a rather large thud.
The Hubs filmed it, and as walked closer for a better shot, his movements distracted the Hawk long enough for the Owl to get away. The Hawk turned out to be the Patriarch of a family of at least 5 Hawks in and around the place.
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| The Owl Box from scrap lumber |
He and the Hubs have a very nice
relationship. The Hawk sits quietly on the target out back for Randy to take out a couple of ground squirrels so he can relieve us of them. No foolin'.
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| Female Owl, Alba |
Barn Owls have been on the brain ever since the Hubs found one huddling in the rafters of the unoccupied house next door in December.
The idea to build an owl box and put it out front at roughly the same height as the rafters was all the Hubs. He thought she would take to it if she found a mate.
And just like that, within a couple of months they had moved in.
She is beautifully speckled and has a perfect sweetheart face; he is snowy white with a large wing span and steely black eyes. We had a hunch their babies would be magnificent.
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| Male Owl, Tyto |
Our living room has a big picture window and is roughly 100' from the owl box so every surface of the house has a pair of binoculars. Even the diningroom table.
There were weeks we barely saw her after that, and the only activity seemed to be when the male would hunt at night and bring her food as she sat on the nest.
And then suddenly, activity.
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| Hoot, April 25 |
In mid-April the parents started acting awkward and nervous. They were looking down a lot and constantly repositioning themselves, as if trying not to
step on something.
Two somethings, actually. A facebook friend came up with the names Hoot and Holler. They are the cutest darn things.
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| Holler, May 7 |
It has brought us joy watching them, reading about them and seeing them grow. We feel honored to be trusted to be this close.
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| Hoot, May 15 |
Alba seems very comfortable around us, and the babies are always curious and poking their heads out to watch. They are curious when the dogs chase the stick, they watched us plant shrubs and now they like the sprinklers. We curiously watch them, too - getting ready to try their wings - and how their now-really-cramped space is causing them trouble to stretch their wings up on the wall, or one sticking out the doorway, all tangled up.
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| Hoot & Holler, May 21 |
The other day I was smoothing some of the topsoil out front and glanced up over my shoulder to see Alba quietly watching me. I was probably 35 feet from her and so we chatted a while, about the yard and what it was going to look like. She seemed interested in my tone of voice if not the topic.
It might have been that moment when I realized the little speckled Owl that had been chased into the tree last summer had been Alba. Perhaps that brought her back to roost in the rafters next door, and why the owl box wasn't such a stretch for her to occupy.
Life finds its own hospitable environment. How lucky we are that it's here.
