June 11, 2022
Aimee and I became Screech Owl fanatics after seeing one nesting last year inside a Saguaro on our golf course. So it didn’t take much urging from Aimee to keep our latest adventure short and focused just on Turkey. We both wanted to be back quickly to see our Screech Owl family emerge from the nesting box we set up outside our bathroom window.
The life of these Screech Owls is a big mystery to us. To this day we have yet to see any adult fully outside the box; only peeking their heads out and usually with eyes closed sleeping. We assume all their activity is at night when we are fast asleep. There are fewer ground squirrels this year, so rodents must be on the diet. But like most of the wildlife in Tucson, they are small and camouflaged and could be sitting silently right in front of us. Our lone excitement was watching an adult choke down a colorful finch. We are hoping the owlets will be more active.
Finally last week, a juvenile popped its head out. It has been a long time coming. Since Screech Owls can have up to a half dozen chicks it has got to be crowded in that nest. And hot! With June, our hottest month, now here.
Two days later we saw two heads at the same time. With all the photos I have taken I should be able to differentiate and count the owlets but most shots have been blurry. Only too late did I discover that the cheap polarizing filter I leave on the camera has been the culprit. I thought I needed to invest in an expensive telephoto lens.
Our owl observing quickly came to a climax. After seeing lots of different heads poking out, we woke to find one of the owlets actually outside the box. He didn’t look ready to leave and he floundered a little moving around the tree. The next morning he was gone, and all activity ceased; a little too fast for us. We thought the fledging process would take longer.
And then today Aimee noticed two dead birds under our Lime Tree. Sadly it is two of the owlets. We are at a loss to explain it. We are hoping that the parents and oldest owlets are still alive and healthy. With birds it is not uncommon for the oldest chicks to monopolize the food and grow faster at the expense of the youngest. Or perhaps this family got started too late and the owlets didn’t learn to fly and hunt before the summer heat kicked in. Sadly we probably will never know.
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