Yesterday Judy and I found two of the baby owls and two adults in Toby’s tree. The third baby could have been there, but they are so well hidden we did not see it. We will try to get some pictures to add to the website today. They are growing up fast! Have a good day.
Smokey & Judy
Recently our neighbor Toby noticed some activity in his back yard. A Big Horned Owl had 3 babies and had made the mistake of picking a palm tree to make her nest. She put her eggs in the “basket” of the cut frons and as the babies started to grow, they outgrew their nest quickly.
3 weeks ago one of the babies fell out so Toby called the Wildlife Refuge and they came and put him back in his nest. But it was only a matter of a few days and he fell out again. So Smokey made a nest in an emty cooker basket with a 2 X 2 for him to be able to climb up to the nest and this kept him off the ground. He was quite happy here and soon was able to fly well enough to get to the top of Toby’s chain link fence. Watching this little guys antics was lots of fun.
On friday April 25th we looked out and saw “our baby” sitting on the hood of our Jeep. Poor little guy had no idea where he was or how to get out of this problem. Smokey made a cage and he and our friend Scott carefully took him back to Toby’s house so he could be near his mom and siblings.
From our house we could see him and sometimes he would be in the cage and other times he was on the fence or the ground. We did manage to get a couple of good pictures and will add them to this website.
We had noticed in the past couple of days that all the babies were getting more active. The 2 in the nest were stretching and doing lots of moving around, flapping their wings and the mom seemed to be bringing them lots more food.
This morning we realized that just like all teenagers, they had left home. We can only guess their mom was relieved since those 3 really kept her busy even during the day. Judy and I on the other hand are going to miss the antics of the little one and only hope we get to see them all again some time. They sure kept us entertained for the past 6 weeks.
But this is springtime and we know that soon we will be seeing baby Grebes on the backs of their mom’s, maybe a baby bobcat or 2 and who knows what else! Martinez Lake is a great place to be in the spring. Have a great spring……Smokey & Judy
