Observações de anmgo

This series is of photos I took from a blind of the adult bringing food to the nest box at night. The young are almost ready to fledge and the adult started withholding food to entice the chicks to come out. If they wouldn't he would deliver the food and try again later.

This series of photos is of the red phase Screech Owl watching me as I was working on the traps where I was doing some bird banding. It was very cold and the owl was very interested in a Cardinal that was in the trap. Much to my surprise, the owl went back and forth between his perch in the nearby tree and on the ground by the trap and finally sitting on me when I was on the ground beside the trap. This went on for 15 or 20 minutes before I decided to end this event. I had a big brush pile in my yard for sparrows and other birds to get in for protection. I decided to get the Cardinal out of the trap and take it to the brush pile where I released it into the safety of the limbs piled there. I then went inside and ended my night outside.

In the last photo in this series, my son came out and sat next to me beside the trap. The owl was not bothered by our presence. Nothing was more important to him but the bird in the trap.

I contributed data to an Eastern Screech Owl project done by my professor at Baylor, Dr. Fred Gehlbach. His research included much more than my yard, but the posted photos in this series were my efforts in helping collect data from my observations. Dr. Gehlbach's research on the Eastern Screech Owl is in his book, The Eastern Screech Owl Life History, ecology and behavior in the suburbs and countryside. Published by Texas A&M Press. I contacted Fred's wife, Nancy to get permission to post my photos from that period of time. These photos were taken before digital. I scanned them in order to perserve them from deterioration.

When this project started, I had owls in the gray phase and the red phase. These photos were taken in my yard along a wooded creek area. Some photos were taken from a blind at night, others during the day when Dr. Gehlbach came out to check the boxes.