Bird alarms and Owls

The birds in our yard have been unsettled a lot this summer.

It's the robin who always starts it.  Robins seem like nervous types, always singing or tutting.  Tut-tut-tut, they'll start out.  Then:  Skeet-tut-tut-tut.  Then Skeet! Skeet!  Then SKEET! SKEET! SKEET!  That's how everyone--birds and people--can tell that something's up in the neighborhood.

The cardinals usually take up the alarm call next:  Chip.  Chip.  CHIP. CHIP.  Robins and cardinals flurry around in the edges of the trees, tails flicking.

When that happens, my curiosity is piqued.  I try to figure out what's bothering them.

It's usually not the kitty.  She doesn't scare the birds much, except for the wrens, who feed on the ground and occasionally are targets for her inept pounces.  She never catches them; they always get away and give her a good scolding.

This summer, many times the disturbance has been an owl.

Usually, I just catch a glimpse of one flying away after the bird ruckus has come to a crescendo.  But this weekend, we got a better look at not one, but a whole family of barred owls!

We've often heard barred owls calling to them since we've moved to this house in a wooded neighborhood. Many people know their "who cooks for you? who cooks for you all?" calls--I love to hear them in the middle of the night!  They also have a spookier call that they'll call back and forth to each other in courting season--"who-who-who-who-who-who HA!"  Robbie's not crazy about them--lots of times they're calling to each other from the white pines outside his bedroom window.

Friday night just before supper, I was on my way to the composter when I looked up and saw this owl staring at me from one of the trees at the back of the yard!

 I dropped my peelings and stood there, looking at him in amazement!  The songbirds had been making alarm calls, which were getting more and more frantic.  But the owl just sat there and looked at me.

It seemed lighter-colored than most barred owls I'd seen before; I figured it must be a juvenile.

I called everyone else out to look at the owl and then we discovered another one, just diagonally above the first.

I think this was the parent, maybe the Mom.  I figured this because the younger one looked at it expectantly.  "It's asking its mom 'what's the ETA on food?'" I told Robbie.

We sat outside to read the paper so we could hang out with the owls.  Even though they didn't do much, I could just look and look at them.  Their faces are mesmerizing--more like cats or people than like birds.

At one point, the younger owl walked up the branch. He looked like a little old man in low-crotch pants.

Later in the evening, we heard the mother owl calling out.  Just a few seconds later, a third owl flew in!  There was a scuttle in the branches, and it looked like the younger one was being fed.

We were thrilled to see two owls out there again today!  And Robbie was thrilled that they did not call during the night last night.