Barred Owls -- Strix varia
In my woods. Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.
This photo was taken two days after the photo I posted a couple days ago (April 20th as opposed to April 18th). By this time, the owlets were getting more adventurous regarding spending time away from the nest. They’d spend most of the day in the nest but would come out in late afternoon to climb around in the upper branches of the nest tree. One of them always seemed to go higher and further from the nest than the other one, and the one you see in the upper right of this photo was that owlet and it was first to take a short flight which took it to a neighboring tree. That happened a bit later in the evening from when this shot was taken. After leaving the nest tree, and whenever it went to trees further away, it was always able to stay high and seemed to like hanging out in the very tops of adjacent trees.
The less adventurous one spent one more night in the nest tree and left it the evening of April 21st. It was not successful in staying high and its first attempts at flight took it down and further down yet, but it was successful in staying above ground. In a matter of a day or two, both owlets were able to buddy up together again in treetops in two of my neighbor’s yards. One of the neighbors had some great “shows” put on by the two owlets and the parents. That included seeing one of the youngsters down on the ground and getting to observe how quickly and easily they can climb up the trunk of a tree to get back up into the branches. They also observed the parents feeding the owlets a few times. Shortly after the owlets left the nest tree, tree leaves were quickly unfurling. Even though I could see them high in the neighbor’s trees for a week or more, soon they were hidden by the leaves. As I write this, I haven’t seen them since then, but I do hear the parents from time to time doing their “Who cooks for you” calls.
Barred Owls -- Strix varia
In my woods. Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana.
This photo was taken two days after the photo I posted a couple days ago (April 20th as opposed to April 18th). By this time, the owlets were getting more adventurous regarding spending time away from the nest. They’d spend most of the day in the nest but would come out in late afternoon to climb around in the upper branches of the nest tree. One of them always seemed to go higher and further from the nest than the other one, and the one you see in the upper right of this photo was that owlet and it was first to take a short flight which took it to a neighboring tree. That happened a bit later in the evening from when this shot was taken. After leaving the nest tree, and whenever it went to trees further away, it was always able to stay high and seemed to like hanging out in the very tops of adjacent trees.
The less adventurous one spent one more night in the nest tree and left it the evening of April 21st. It was not successful in staying high and its first attempts at flight took it down and further down yet, but it was successful in staying above ground. In a matter of a day or two, both owlets were able to buddy up together again in treetops in two of my neighbor’s yards. One of the neighbors had some great “shows” put on by the two owlets and the parents. That included seeing one of the youngsters down on the ground and getting to observe how quickly and easily they can climb up the trunk of a tree to get back up into the branches. They also observed the parents feeding the owlets a few times. Shortly after the owlets left the nest tree, tree leaves were quickly unfurling. Even though I could see them high in the neighbor’s trees for a week or more, soon they were hidden by the leaves. As I write this, I haven’t seen them since then, but I do hear the parents from time to time doing their “Who cooks for you” calls.