Yesterday morning I woke up to the sounds of angry birds in the backyard. It started with the blue jays screaming away and soon they were joined by some northern cardinals, house sparrows and lastly a couple of red-breasted nuthatches. My first thought was that there was a hawk in the yard. Then I thought maybe a cat as we're having some problems with a few free roaming in the neighbourhood. It was only when I saw the nuthatches going to the owl box, poking their head inside and still giving something proper s**t that I suspected an owl was within the box. If you have been following my blog for a while, you know that we had an owl all through last winter. Angie named him Little Al.
I puttered about in the house like I do every morning with those few chores, finally getting the coffee on all throughout I kept some attention to the box outside both with my eyes and ears.
Finally, after X amount of time, the owl appeared at the entry hole and looking out to the backyards beyond. I knew without any doubt that this grey morph eastern screech owl was the same bird that hung out with us last winter. Man was I ever happy to see him! I texted Angie and she too was beyond thrilled that he came back.
I stepped out onto the deck and took a few record photos of the moment and then let him be.
I've got some great shots of the owl back in April so I really don't need to try for any more other than distant "look hoo's here" stuff for random social media bits. One of my better photos back in the spring.
He made a couple more very brief appearances before I left work. Then Angie saw him when she got home from work, just sitting there with the last light of the day. She witnessed him fly out of the box at 5:13 PM for his evening hunt. Lucky her to see him do things some evenings.
Project Feeder Watch just started up last week. I'll be happy to add him to my count days.
Welcome back Little Al!
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