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I found something cool-- an owl's nest. It is within easy sight of one of my favorite walking paths. I took a picture of it with my crappy point-and-shoot camera, but it was too far away to get a clear shot. I can see just enough detail to see that it is probably a long-eared owl. (That was already my guess based on the long-eared silouhette.) I look forward to taking my good Nikon, tripod, and 1000 mm lens on my next trek to see if I can get a decent photo.

Now if I can only find the nesting site of the barred owls in my neighborhood. We can hear them hooting all over the place at certain times of year.

You should go look under the nest site and see if you can find some pellets. They are very interesting to dissect.

Kevin

That reminds me! I told Mattie last night that we would look for owl pellets this afternoon. We have an owl in one of our trees about 3 nights a week.

Can't you make coffee with them? Mike, give it a shot.

Finding an owl nest is cool. Corey if I ever find any pellets you can have the coffee, yuck!

I got a better photo today. It's definitely a long-eared owl (Asio otus).

Click for larger image:

Beautiful!

Cool! I would be tempted to sit and watch for a while. Congrats on the photo.

I'm officially bummed out. I've been watching the owl's nest a couple of times a week, hoping to see chicks. Last week, I didn't make it down there, due to cold weather and rain. Today, I went by, but couldn't see mama owl sitting on the nest. I took a couple of shots of the nest anyway, hoping that when I blew them up, I might see the fuzzy tops of some chick heads showing.

Instead, the photos showed that the whole top half of the nest was gone! I'm not surprised. I thought the nest was built in a precarious spot. It's on the side of a leaning tree, held in place at the bottom only by a tangle of vines. I worried that a rainstorm or high winds might take it out and we had both last week. Plus, believe it or not, the city came in within the last week, built a concrete pad, and placed a park bench on it next to the path--just 10 yards from the nest! Construction noise may have disturbed things. The nest was clearly visible. I hope some idiot didn't pelt the nest with rocks to knock it down.

Anyway, after seeing the photos, I drove back down and looked on the ground under the nest, just in case there were eggs or chicks in need of help. I found nothing but nest bits and owl pellets. I was probably lucky to find those. The nest is right over a dry stream, which is wet now and may have been running after the rains.

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe mama will rebuild somewhere I can see or come back next year. On the plus side, a pair of hawks flew right by me, screeching, and one carrying a mouse. The wind was at such a speed that as the hawk came adjacent to me, it seemed to stand still for a bit. Too bad my camera was still in the backpack! It probably wouldn't have mattered, though, because I had the 1000 mm lens on it and you pretty much need a tripod to get a decent shot with that thing. I'm keeping my eye out for a hawks nest.

Sorry to hear about that. Our owl hasn't been here for the past week or so, and we never did find any pellets.

mewickham wrote:I'm officially bummed out. I've been watching the owl's nest a couple of times a week, hoping to see chicks. Last week, I didn't make it down there, due to cold weather and rain. Today, I went by, but couldn't see mama owl sitting on the nest. I took a couple of shots of the nest anyway, hoping that when I blew them up, I might see the fuzzy tops of some chick heads showing.

Instead, the photos showed that the whole top half of the nest was gone! I'm not surprised. I thought the nest was built in a precarious spot. It's on the side of a leaning tree, held in place at the bottom only by a tangle of vines. I worried that a rainstorm or high winds might take it out and we had both last week. Plus, believe it or not, the city came in within the last week, built a concrete pad, and placed a park bench on it next to the path--just 10 yards from the nest! Construction noise may have disturbed things. The nest was clearly visible. I hope some idiot didn't pelt the nest with rocks to knock it down.

Anyway, after seeing the photos, I drove back down and looked on the ground under the nest, just in case there were eggs or chicks in need of help. I found nothing but nest bits and owl pellets. I was probably lucky to find those. The nest is right over a dry stream, which is wet now and may have been running after the rains.

Oh well. It was fun while it lasted. Maybe mama will rebuild somewhere I can see or come back next year. On the plus side, a pair of hawks flew right by me, screeching, and one carrying a mouse. The wind was at such a speed that as the hawk came adjacent to me, it seemed to stand still for a bit. Too bad my camera was still in the backpack! It probably wouldn't have mattered, though, because I had the 1000 mm lens on it and you pretty much need a tripod to get a decent shot with that thing. I'm keeping my eye out for a hawks nest.

You know me, I love rubbing salt into a wound; "So the book must be done."