Amazing Wild Baby Screech Owls Fed By Parents

Video: Amazing Wild Baby Screech Owls Fed By Parents

Eastern Screech Owl parents feed wild caught food to the three owlets in the nest box. The owlets can now swallow entire frogs and lizards and have to fight for position at the entrance and in a manner seem to take turns eating, but have to be pushed out of the way at times. Watch for one owlet who doesn't like Cicadas and lets it go only to be attacked by it later! Highlights from the live broadcast of April 7th, 2015.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9wGxBVMK9c

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Video: Amazing Wild Baby Screech Owls Fed By Parents

Cute Baby Screech Owls Up Close

Video: Cute Baby Screech Owls Up Close

Extreme close-ups of the cute wild Eastern Screech Owlets in the nest box. Only one has opened its eyes and is getting much bigger than the other two. Fledging is expected around April 10th. Plenty of food for all. Have a few more bugs to get out of this camera/microphone setup - stay tuned.

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Video: Cute Baby Screech Owls Up Close

Squirrel Valentine's Day Love Story in an Owl Nest Box!

Video: Squirrel Valentine's Day Love Story in an Owl Nest Box!

Valentine's Day Operetta of an ill-fated squirrel love story of epic proportions! Have you ever heard the sound squirrels make whilst in the throes of passion - it's cute! Unknown to these young squirrels they were caught on a video camera meant for observing Screech Owls. Play at high volume and HD for best results! 

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Video: Squirrel Valentine's Day Love Story in an Owl Nest Box!

Eastern Screech Owls Return to Nest Box for 2015

Video: Eastern Screech Owls Return to  Nest Box for 2015

Eastern Screech Owls have returned to the nest box for 2015! Female Red Morph Screech Owl has been roosting in the box for 6 days now. No eggs yet, perhaps in a week or two - historically this is pretty early. Last years eggs were abandoned because the Male stopped bringing food for some reason. This is a new mother and she seems quite shy so for now I'm careful not to make eye contact or get too close to the box until they commit to it and eggs are laid. Cameras are ready!

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Video: Eastern Screech Owls Return to  Nest Box for 2015

Haunting Screech Owl Calls For Halloween

Video: Haunting Screech Owl Calls For Halloween 

A most amazing recording of a female Eastern Screech Owl calling in an unusual manner was captured during this years breeding season as she was sitting on three eggs. This is probably a type of contact call with the male outside in a nearby tree - but is unusual for a Screech Owl call. With dozens of hours of recordings this is the only time I can recall the rhythmic trilling going on for so long. The original recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-p-ec-DHlw was captured live and lasts almost an hour with approximately one minute between calls. The original video audio trace is shown below.  This short two minute video Haunting Screech Owl Calls for Halloween - contains highlights of the extended live recording and was made by editing together the first 18 consecutive calls of seven seconds each compressed in time. The audio trace of this shorter video is shown below. Also, and audio trace of an individual call is shown below and each of these calls contains more than 70 segments. You can see the owls entire body shake as she makes these amazing calls! Enjoy......

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Video: Haunting Screech Owl Calls For Halloween 

Audio Trace of Original Live Recording - 27 Calls in about 25 minutes.

Audio Trace of the Remix Video of the first 18 calls cut into seven second sections

Audio Trace of an individual Screech Owl haunting call - Over 70 segments in each call.

This is what Mrs. Owl looks like in daytime

Nature Meditation - Thunderstorm Sounds Recorded Inside a Flycatchers Nest Box!

Video: Nature Meditation - Thunderstorm Sounds Recorded Inside a Flycatchers Nest Box!

Nature Meditation - Experience 25 minutes of a raging thunderstorm from inside a Great Crested Flycatcher nest box. Sit alongside mother flycatcher as she guards five eggs while  a storm rages outside.

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Video: Nature Meditation - Thunderstorm Sounds Recorded Inside a Flycatchers Nest Box!

Great Crested Flycatcher Lays 5th Egg in Owl Nest Box

Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays 5th Egg in Owl Nest Box  

Great Crested Flycatcher nesting in the Screech Owl Nest Box laid the fifth egg yesterday (4/30/14). The unusual low vocalizations she continues to make when she first enters the nest box remind me of the Screech Owls in the nest box and may be some kind of bonding with the eggs that the mother is accomplishing or just a habit like "humming" .

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Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays 5th Egg in Owl Nest Box  

Great Crested Flycatcher Lays 4th Egg in Owl Nest Box

Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays 4th Egg in Owl Nest Box

Great Crested Flycatcher nesting in the Screech Owl Nest Box laid the fourth egg yesterday (4/29/14)  and promptly covered them up with snake skin. Because she is standing very close to the microphone when she enters the box you can hear some unusual vocalizations that are more like interpersonal communication rather than calls. These low vocalizations would not be heard out in the open at a distance. This is similar to the Screech Owls internal communication which is very low. She has begun more frequent incubation - it is said when all the eggs are lain she will then incubate continuously.

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Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays 4th Egg in Owl Nest Box

Great Crested Flycatcher Lays Third Egg in Owl Nest Box

Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays Third Egg in Owl Nest Box

Great Crested Flycatcher nesting in the Screech Owl Nest Box laid the third egg yesterday (4/28/14)  and promptly covered them up with snake skin. The snake skin relationship is interesting - I suppose there is a lot of snake skin around judging by the Black Racers and Rat Snakes, but what an effort it must take to find them all - and the intelligence required to realize what great cushioning material it makes for the eggs.

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Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays Third Egg in Owl Nest Box

Great Crested Flycatcher Lays an Egg in Owl Nest Box

Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays an Egg in Owl Nest Box

Great Crested Flycatcher lays the second egg in the Screech Owl Nest box. Caught on the nest box camera from beginning to end. She has filled the nest bowl with snake skin - a flycatcher tradition that makes for great protection for the eggs. After all the eggs are lain - usually 4 or 5 she will begin incubating full time and then they should hatch in two weeks.

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Video: Great Crested Flycatcher Lays an Egg in Owl Nest Box

Cute Baby Rats Sleeping in an Owl Nest Box

Video:  Cute Baby Rats Sleeping in an Owl Nest Box

These cute baby woodland rats picked the wrong place to move in to. They don't appear to particular about their sleeping arrangements. There appears to be 4 or five of them on top of each other. They are mostly nocturnal - sleeping in the day and active at night. I waited until they left for the night and then relocated the nest box to a better location away from the deep woods. Although Screech Owl will eat baby rats, full grown rats are too dangerous and more the prey of much larger Great Horned Owls, hawks and other predators. These woodland rats do not get that large and have a very high mortality rate - about 97% die in their first year. Rats in the wild perform a valuable service as part of the balance of nature - but for successful owl breeding the nest box needs to be put in a place they can't get at. A Screech Owl would simply avoid a nest box full of rats.

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Video:  Cute Baby Rats Sleeping in an Owl Nest Box

Eastern Screech Owl Abandons Nest Box With Three Eggs

Video:  Eastern Screech Owl Abandons Nest Box With Three Eggs

Mother Screech Owl looks sad and tired as I take her last picture before she abandoned the nest box. You can hear her beautiful and soulful voice at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-p-ec-DHlw&list=UUcNyzOCKvyMBaA4iQVgO9EQ

Not exactly sure what happened, but the male stopped bringing food and as a result she left the eggs alone for well over three hours after dusk in 50 degree temperatures for two nights - after that she ceased incubating. She stayed in the nest box during the day for another week and then left overnight on April 6th.

I look forward to seeing her next year and hearing the amazing sounds of the Eastern Screech Owl in the woods.

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Video:  Eastern Screech Owl Abandons Nest Box With Three Eggs

Curious Eastern Screech Owlet

Video: Curious Eastern Screech Owlet

Curious Eastern Screech Owlet

Cute and Curious - the eldest Eastern Screech Owlet this season was this male Gray Morph. He finds the world outside the box fascinating. Unlike last season we did not see a lot of fighting over who gets to sit in the nest box entrance. The 2nd egg did not hatch so there were 4 and 6 days difference in age between the eldest and the next two and he was way ahead in development - leaving the nest box 3 days before the youngest.

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Transformer Owl SmackDown Of Annoying Squirrel

Video: Eastern Screech Owl has had just about enough of this Squirrel!

Eastern Screech Owl has had just about enough of this Squirrel!

Transformer Screech Owl 2013 is patiently guarding her nest box with three owlets when a pesky and curious squirrel decides to check her out. She puffs herself up and extends her wings to look big and scary as the squirrel is right on top of her.  Mrs. Owl holds her patience for quite awhile and then sends the squirrel on his way with a somewhat disgusted look. This is the same mother Transformer Screech Owl that has displayed her prodigious talent in the past by shrinking to look like a tree branch from a Red-Shouldered Hawk on the exact same spot in 2012. The only real wild transformer owl on the web!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NPXU5AZSAc

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Eastern Screech Owl Takes Off for Nest Box

Eastern Screech Owl Takes Off for Nest Box

Eastern Screech Owl Takes Off for Nest Box

Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl 

From May 2nd, 2013 - Red Morph Eastern Screech Owl mother has been outside the nest box on a nearby branch stub all day watching over the nest box  - It's now dusk - the video makes it look brighter out - and she is heading back to the nest box to begin a night of caring and feeding for the owlets.

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Screech Owl Nest Box Placement - Try and Keep it Cool!

Video of Screech Owlets Keeping Cool in a Hot Nest Box by Panting with their mouths open like dogs.

Our owl nest boxes are ready for the 2013 season and I have a very important reminder about placement. You want to make sure your box will not be exposed to the blazing late spring sun especially during the afternoon and especially if you put it on a structure's gable end as one of our is (See earlier posts). Even though the nest box has venting at the top it gets hot and with the mother and 3 to 5 owlets inside getting bigger every day they have to pant to keep cool. In this video it shows the owls at about 10am when they get a shot of morning sun, but then they get no direct sun the rest of the day. It would be pretty stressful to deal with that all afternoon - its painful to watch. You would want to take care not to have your owl box baking in the afternoon sun - especially in the south-land.

Owl Nest Box is Not a Dream Home for a Gecko

This gave me a chuckle this afternoon. Getting the nest boxes ready for owl season and trimming some branches etc this afternoon I noticed this Gecko who had claimed a nest box as his new home. Trust me - this is going to end badly! Nobody told him that little lizards are Screech Owls number one food in Florida. All the more reason for the owls to move in this winter - Dinner is Waiting!!

Little Lizard thinks he's going to make a home here - not!