Heaven on Earth

Heaven on Earth

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Roosting Owls and Deer visitors

We have an owl family roosting in one of our Elm trees.  That's the female above.  She is the largest of the clutch. Possibly they are Great Horned Owls.  After searching the Internet, that's our best guess. We worked in the yard all day and never noticed them up above us but I did find an owl feather in the garden so I should have been alerted.  They are very quiet during the day, and seem to sleep a lot. They are so high up, they are not intimidated by us at all.  As we were eating dinner out by the granary later in the evening, one flew by us and landed about 12 feet away on the roof ridge of the house.
It just sat and stared at us.  I tried to walk quietly as not to scare it away until I could get my camera.  He (the male) just didn't care---at all.  As we watched for them the rest of the evening, we spotted the other three owls in our tree.  And then we saw this deer family
grazing in the acre next to ours.  It looks like it has been a hard winter for them (we had a lot of snow).  The owls made noise all night as they hunted.  Their cry is interesting, not at all like the other owls we have seen and heard around the house before.  It is something of a cross between a whistle and a screech (not a hoot), but they look nothing like screech owls.  This morning we were up early, again working in the garden, and we spotted two baby owls, their downy breast feathers just billowing around in the wind, perched high up on the same branch of the tree; the other two owls on higher branches near by.
One of the babies gifted me with a downy, fluffy baby-owl feather, so different from the adult wing and tail feathers.  By afternoon I had a whole bouquet, collected from the garden.
The owls are fascinating to watch and we hope they stay awhile, at least until the field mice (which are leaving holes in our pasture) run out.

7 comments:

  1. That is so cool! Unfortunately, the most populous wildlife in our yard is gophers! :(

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  2. Great pictures of your owl family! How nice to have interesting flying pets that take care of themselves :)

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  3. Sue, We had gophers too until the owls got them. I wish you had some owls. They are great for pest control. A few years ago here in Salt Lake voles tore up our sprinkler system before we trapped them and that was costly.

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  4. Those owls are amazing. How cool that they have been living near you and you've been able to watch them!

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  5. I live in Massachusetts so I'm in awe of the natural beauty of your area. First time visiting your blog from the Hive. I plan on continuing to visit!!

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  6. Sue,
    What a sweet blog and beautiful pictures of your neighbors-we lived in Utah for 5 years and I won't ever forget the beauty of that state ! Thanks for sharing.
    Sandy

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  7. Ohh Bonnie ,so sorry I called you Sue -I was just reading her comment and that name stuck in my mind !!

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