Barred Owl AI Caturday ART

 

Image Creator gave me these four barred owls 

I typed

barred owl, palm tree, digital art

and AI created these.

I loved them so much, because they make me think of our resident owl, Hoot, that I created a header.

I am a bit of a know it-owl and a jack of owl trades now 

I DO Solemnly Swear, I will someday soon, stop the AI ART. 

never to touch it again

I love it! Just Because

TALK TO ME, I AM OWL EARS

Hoot the Barred Owl part 4

 

Panorama iPhone view of our trees from eve of house to eve of house.

Hoot spent at least 12 hours sitting in the top of the palm, the one on the left of the two palms to the left.

Hoot sat about 40 feet up, the other trees are about 6 stories high

These two phots are called Vertical Panorama photos, again by iPhone. Woo Hoo, learned something new.

These trees are 6 stories high, about 50 feet I think.

I think I know why this barred owl, known as Hoot, chose our home to live behind.

Research tells me

the answer to David's comment yesterday, how do I know if the owl is a HE not a SHE.

I don't know, but THEY say the only way to tell is if they sit next to each other and the BIGGER one will be the female. We are calling him Hoot and Bob said to use IT instead of He/She

Barred Owls are the only owls that like daylight hours.

they live in knot holes in tall trees.

They prefer really tall trees, they like 40 to 50 feet/15-18 meters. The like to live in them and sit in therm.

Below is Google earth and our house is the red X. 

see all those trees?

THEY say Owls prefer trees, lots of trees and love swampy areas. The house at the bottom circled in red has been untouched by human hands or feet for many years.

The yard is a Swamp! truly is.

 Also note, Owls like proximity to water. SEE the Four Pool, ours is surrounded by trees and not open like the others.

Bob and I think after much discussion, Hoot is guarding a nest with eggs or babies.

Yet another reason we vote HE, because SHE is sitting on eggs or feeding Babies

THEY say they lay 3 to 5 eggs end of March and 30 to 33 days later BABIES.

We can think of no reason he would sit 5 hours straight, take a lunch break and sit for another 5 hours on the same frond. He was dive bombed most of the day by starlings, crows, jays etc. he did not blink and eye or flutter a feather.

What ever the reason, which ever gender he is, We love Hoot and have cricks in our necks watching him. I think our sliding glass door may have to be replaced from constant sliding it open and shut for hours.

Note: Info Found HERE says they mate for life, and take care of babies for up to 6 months, longer than any other owl..

Just think of the OWL blog fodder if they have Babies.....

Look Whooo's BACK

 

At 8:30 AM on 4/26/2023, Wednesday, Bob yelled in the door, he's back and I went running.

Hoot was first seen in our palm trees 11 days ago on April 5th. He stayed about half an hour.

today he stayed for over 2 hours.

I spent most of my morning watching him and talking baby talk to him, his eyes followed me, and he listened to me talk. I think he was looking at the lens and smiling. 

He was in the shade, and I had to edit the 19 photos I took of him. Most of the time

he was behind fronds, but he moved out a little and I grabbed the photos before he turned his back to watch the birds that were diving at him.

In the 11 days since we first sighted him, I have heard him at 1 AM and 2:30 AM on two different nights when I got up for a potty break. We think his nest may be in one of our trees or the neighbors' trees.

2 sightings 2 hearings in our yard and 2 hearings from our neighbors' yards in the early am.

We are in love with our new neighbor. We are truly thankful he has chosen our yard.

the neighbor next door says he found 3 baby ducks in the yard in the middle of the night. His three pitties went crazy and he went out to see what it was. He said they ran in our yard. I told him the Male and female love our pool. It seems we have a family of Mom/Dad/2 mating teens and 3 babies.

He is about 2 feet tall. The claws look lethal.

We changed his name from Hooty to HOOT because he is a hoot to watch.

Thrilling Backyard Visitor

This is part of our view as we sit by the pool each day after we finish lunch. It was a noisy 15 minutes.

The tallest trees above were full of black birds. Screeming and diving, about 20 of them.

I said do you see the hawk? they are upset.

The screeching was so bad I stood to go in the house. Bob said

LOOK LOOK up in the tallest palm.

I raced inside for the camera. The Nikon not the phone

In the trees above and the two below He is THERE?

if you enlarge, he can be seen.

he is on the left bottom just above the dead palm frond stick. in all these photos.

enlarge we can see his eyes which followed me every where I went.

I stood peering at him with the zoom 

and suddenly He looked me right in the eyes.

The Barred Owl we have been hearing was sitting there with black birds diving at him.

One bird smacked him on his shoulder, he just sat there.

I Madly Snapped

We were so thrilled we talked about him for hours and every time I go out I look for him.

I found that the barred owl is one of few who hunt in daytime hours.

For a week now we have blamed the hawks for all the feathers found on the pool deck.

Each day I fussed about the hawk eating the jays and he was misjudged.

The Owl is Here, we are in love with him.

Hooty is welcome. Hawks are common as robins here.

we have seen screech owls in early hours several times but never an owl like this.

He is a Lifer for both of us and now  I get what that word means to bird watchers.

I stood inside our kitche door watching him for another 20 minutes. each time I moved he focused on my eyes from the top of a 40 foot palm, that was 40 feet away, he could see my eyes

inside the glass door. 

 

Cutest Baby Ever on Nature Friday

Yesterday I showed you a hedgehog and said I would show you something cuter today.

Since 2009, I have bombarded you with photos of any and all living creatures in our yard.

Lizards/frogs/snakes/squirrels/possums/raccoons and recently the teeny tiny cute baby possum.

Tues June, 7,8 and 9th I stood thrilled to the core of my being staring into the eyes of

A baby Eastern Screech Owl.

In our back yard we have Lizards and snakes, squirrels and possums, Raccoons.

I have shared photos of them over the years, we had 3 sightings 2011, 2018, and 2020 when we found the male dead from rat poison in our rain barrel. 

In 33 years I only got one decent photo Link to that 2018 post HERE.

source internet unknown photographer

At 6:15 Am Tues I stood waiting on Beau as he wandered the yard,

The sky was still dark, but light enough to see.

Birds were singing, and my heart was full listening to the Screech Owls Calling to each other.

These are recreations of what I saw. The big one is for details, the others are scale.

I stared hard at the lump on the limb, it moved. I stood very still and did not breathe.

the lump lifted into the air and dropped on the broken stump to the birdbath. my heart sang Baby Screech owl, his back was to me, and as I stepped one slow step closer,

his sweet little head rotated back and I was staring into his eyes.

we stood for possibly a minute just staring at each other.

The hairs on both of my arms stood at attention, the same feeling we get when we hear a song, poem that is so beautiful the hairs stand up. Beau started to move, and I eased

backwards and took him in the house. 

I returned to the same place, he was so close I could have touched him with my foot if I could stand on one leg without falling over an scaring him to death.

At 5 feet distanced we stared at each other. His precious eyes glowed and blinked. I took a tiny step forward, he lifted to the fence and sat and watched me.

I eased into the house to get bob but the Hoot was gone.

Wed am, at the same time I went to see if he was back. He was sitting in the same spot, and we went through the same thing as the day before.

the parents were calling and calling.

Day 3, Thursday I eased out the door at 6:11 and waited. He was not in sight  even though the parents were calling. I realized they were not in the tree to the East but the parents were to the west in the Maple tree. I turned and slowly walked and stopped to look.

There he was, sitting on the pole, we stared at each other and I realized there was a 2nd one sitting 2 feet away from him. TWO Babies, what could be cuter.

I stepped closer, Hoot flew across the pool just barely skimming the water and onto the sea grape limb, Hooter followed. I turned to walk closer and low and behold

NUMBER THREE Baby lifted from the pine tree and went to sit by his siblings.

Hoot, Hootie and Hooter are alive and well.

will they come again today?

I will be waiting with my arm hair standing up, waiting for the thrill of seeing

The Cutest Baby Ever. 

This is posted on both blogs today, I could not choose which to post on. If you have not visited you are done with me for today. Beau totally ignored the babies.

I believe there nest is in the corner of our lot, we have 9 trees that are perfect and woodpeckers live in them and source says they love to live with woodpeckers.

Goodbye Hooty

Hooty is dead. My heart hurts.

One of our sweet owl couple is dead. My heart is broken for him and the one he left behind. I told their story in a prior post.

If you have been using rat poison, Please, Stop Now!
If you use rat poison, please, please stop Now!

A neighbor, we are not sure which one, has put out rat poison. In Florida our palms have tree rats, they harm no one, but do have to be trapped if they get in a house.

We know this because 2 weeks ago, we saw a half dead rat hanging upside down trying to get to water in the pool. He had been poisoned. My husband put him out of his misery. Poison not only causes them to suffer a horrifying  death, but anything that eats a poisoned rat died.

I found our sweet hoot owl in the rain barrel today... He had gone there to get water, the poisons causes hemorrhaging inside and makes them so thirsty they seek water and drown... I KNOW this is horrible but people need to know . I have argued with people in the store that I see them buying the poison. Rat poison should be against the law. It is not.

One rat can kill many birds, from buzzards to gulls and even raccoons and possums. if you buy POISON, PLEASE DON"T.   

Oooooo Oooooo Ooooooo

Bob went out for the mail, mid afternoon, he popped his head back in the door and yelled into the house   "Samar, come out here!!!!"
I popped out on the porch with a "WHAT??"  He said LOOk Up in the tree, Where? Where?
OH MY GOSH!!! I see him I see HIM!!  Stay still I whispered Easing the door open, racing to the kitchen table.

Is he still there? I whispered   I see HIM I see him... THERE HE IS!!!!

Owl you need is love, he is so hootiful and what a HOOT we had.

and here he is .. We hear this amazing couple all the time , softly calling Oooooooo Oooooo and have seen them at night or at least the outline of them in the tree.

As we watched Bob said, the owl was on the ground, in a bush under our picture window, when Bob walked past he flew up almost into Bob's face with a wing span that is mindboggling for a 7 or 8 inch owl... I got to see the wing span when he tired of my camera clicking and all the Happy Dancing we were doing.  it is rare for them to be out and about in mid day... Google Girl said they love eating lizards and frogs... OH NO! I hope he doesn't find Freddy and Freda Frog and Liam Lizard, but they are in the back yard so maybe they are safe.
A link to YouTube to hear one... HERE

If Liam Liazard new how much I love this little guy he would be LIVID Liam with Jealousy

Does wildlife in your yard excite you????  Give me a HOOT and let me know. Owl be waiting to hear from you

Light in the Dark 2

After shooting the cactus, I took camera inside and returned to stare up in the tree.

When what to my wondering eyes did appear?? one of the Screech Owls that live in our oak. We hear them but never see them. I run in the door, grab the camera and hubby yells What is out there?

OWL she screeches, not the owl but ME    Alas! it is to dark, he is to small, so I flash him one time  and watch until he flies away right over my head.

Oh, well, can't get the Owl let's see what the Poincana looks like being Flashed in the Dark with the external thingy..... you know the rest of this story.

so just in case you are bored to death with the same old flowers over and over here you go.

"What did the carrot say to the wheat?
Lettuce rest, I'm feeling beet."
- Shel Silverstein