May 1: I think I mentioned several weeks ago how much we have been enjoying hearing our neighborhood owls hooting in the evening. There was quite a bit of speculation about the presence of chicks, and last week, we all go to see them for ourselves. Three chicks tumbled about forty feet from their nest in a pine tree across the street from our house. Two of the chicks, fuzzy puffballs on the wet, green grass, seemed to be feisty and healthy. In the wild, owls that fall out of the nest are taken care of on the ground. But in a neighborhood, an exposed owlet doesn’t have much of a chance. We called over to animal control, and they picked up the chicks with a promise that they would bring them back when it wasn’t raining and try to return them to their nest.
On Friday evening, Hooter and Howie as they were dubbed returned along with a new basket/nest. Howie suffered a concussion and perhaps other injuries from his fall, so they are going to raise him in captivity. Hooter, however, got hoisted back into the pine tree, while one of his parents looked on. Tonight we could see one of the parents sitting in the basket along with the baby. What a neat experience this has been! Pictures of the saga taken by Nancy are in the gallery.
Althea, Bryan, Andrew, and Sylvia