Kara, barred owls are a...ready?...HOOT to listen to, aren't they? With their very loud, "Who cooks for you, who cooks for YOU-aaaaallll?" And then the cackling battles they get into...reminds me of laughing hyenas in the African bush. They are very easy to call up, too. I have known people who could do a perfect call, and even I can call them, though my rendition is far from perfect. But I have had them answer me many times, and come swooping in to see if there was a strange owl in their territory that needed to be investigated. They are the only one of our owls that are often active in full daylight, and they are the only one with black eyes instead of yellow. They are big owls, and the lack of "ear" tufts makes them easy to tell apart from a great horned owl. They are definitely my favorite one. Except possibly for the cute little burrowing owls in the Cape Coral area. Glad you are enjoying them. They sure do spice up a summer night, don't they? Marcia

Again, wonderful pics. What is it about the eyes of a bird of prey that just stun you for a moment? I have always liked looking into the eyes of barred owls because of their all-dark appearance, but the contrast of that deep golden yellow against the white plumage....it's so striking. For the record, Vonyon, I have seldom been able to walk up on an owl in the woods. I usually don't even know they are around until they are already swooping away to put some distance between us. THe times I have been close to them are the ones where I sat very very still and called them in. The first time this happened to me it was a big shock.I was bent over at the waist walking through knee deep water and shuffling my feet slowly to see what was living in the leaf litter. I had on a camo jacket and my face was not turned up and I guess the owl did not recognize me as a human. I was still bent over, staring at the water when I saw its reflection swoop in low and glide to a branch about 15 feet over my head. It was all I could do not to snap erect in surprise. Sometimes when I am alone in the woods, I mumble to myself, other times I might whistle or hum a song. Sometimes I am totally silent, but my favorite thing is to try and mimic animal noises and that day I had been hooting like a barred owl off and on for a few minutes. Kinda like singing in your car or talking to yourself in the bread aisle--things you do when no one else is around. Only I wasn't alone there in the creek and it was a shock when the owl showed up. And there I was stuck like a bent hairpin. I knew I had to eventually stand up but I knew the owl would see and probably hear any twitch. Luckily, by watching its reflection I noticed that every once it a while it would swivel its head around to the east to look at other things, and I would wait for that one moment and then raise my upper body bit by bit back to an upright position. I think now they call this Pilates.....it took a while of start and stop but I finally made it, but I was still looking down at the water. I have heard that even if you are well hidden from an animal, if they see your eyes it's all over. I waited again for the right moment, and then finally lifted my head to look directly at the bird while it was again turned east. When it spun back around and down to check on this strange lumpy hooting thing in the creek we were finally looking directly at each other. I could not believe those huge dark eyes, not at all like GHO eyes. Look right through you. Its head shifted a bit, and I don't know if it was my eyes or maybe a subtle twitch on my part but it had had enough of me. It flapped maybe three times and then dropped to a low glide off through the birches. I have only been this close to owls in a normal setting maybe three other times, and all three were responding to calls. But ahead of my experience in the creek I never knew it could work like that.

Animals can be so strange....you may put all your time and effort into building just the right box, selecting a 'perfect' site, and then....nothing. Or the opposite may happen, and it will seem as if they were sitting around WAITING for you to get their new home up and going for them. I think it's different for everybody, but you will have to be PATIENT. Years ago we got a booklet from the DNR that had blueprints and general info for houses that were specific for each species. We looked it over and chose to make wood duck boxes, thinking they would have a place to nest by our pond. What we learned, in fact, was that many species simply don't care if a box is not "designed" for them...if they can get their bodies through the hole, there's nobody already at home (depending on the animal this may not matter either) and the place seems safe enough, it's a done deal. Not only will screech owls use a duck box as a day haven, they will indeed nest and rear young in them. There is a slough I frequent that has three duck boxes on it, and during one spring I discovered one particular box was home to a nest of screechies. I think the slough was dry that year, but usually this box is surrounded by about 2 1/2 feet of water...a rough first flight for any chick. I can't recall how many chicks were in that nest...I will have to try to dig out the animal album and find the photos. But they will use a duck box. When we first hung out duck boxes here at our place, I was getting frustrated waiting. It was something like three years before we finally found a nest, and then all three boxes had action!! It's worth the wait, so hang in there. But I'm still waiting for bats to use their house....I don't think they need any extra places with all the shagbark hickories. But the winner in my Crazy Nester category goes to the bluebirds at my dad's place. For the past three years, there has been a pair of bluebirds nesting in his martin house. Not a thing to be seen of any martins, but these blues are shoulder to shoulder with house sparrows and to this day I don't yet understand how they are pulling this off.

It's not impossible, but it is unlikely that little screeches might take a bluebird, especially during nesting season, when they have hungry owl mouths to feed. But screech owls mainly hunt at night, when blues are tucked away.