May Day flowers, wildlife, & owl nightlife
Happy May Day to you! In celebration, a few pictures of earthly delights from the garden, starting with the first lovely datura flower of the season. Mmm, heady scent!
Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) in full buttery bloom. This was actually taken a couple of weeks ago, but it never made it into a post.
I noticed this white-lined sphinx moth resting for the day before her noturnal activities.
She’d better watch out for the screech owls, which love to dine on moths. This is Mama Owl, whom we’d been watching in the owl box during the day. She recently decamped to a small evergreen sumac near the box, where she keeps a slit-eyed watch between daytime naps. Papa Owl roosts in a ligustrum over the back fence, also keeping a watchful eye. They have little ones in the owl box, you see.
Mama Owl roosts only 6 feet off the ground and will allow us to get quite close, within 6 feet, for photo ops. When I walk through the garden, she swivels her head around, keeping a close watch on me the entire time, but never acting agitated or alarmed. She’s a calm mother. Papa Owl is about 12 feet off the ground, and he permits close photo ops as well.
Two nights ago, around 9 pm, I was working on my computer at the dining table and wondered if the owls were hunting in order to feed their chicks. I switched on the outdoor flood lights and lifted my binoculars for a closer look at the owl box, hoping to see some fuzzy heads at the doorway. Instead I caught a clear, bigger-than-life glimpse of one of the parents shooting straight into the box, obviously dropping off some tasty treat, and immediately popping back up to the door and flying off into the night again. I was wowed.
Happy spring to you!
All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Pam–I like to keep up with this owl cam during nesting season. It’s in or near the Allandale neighborhood in Austin and it gives me a rough idea of how big the owlets in my box are at any given time. These owlets hatched last week and are still less than a week old.
http://gargravarr.cc.utexas.edu/owl/
Those owl cams are so cool. I’ve often thought we should install one in our own owl box. —Pam
That is SO cool. I don’t think I’ll ever see an owl in my urban garden; how wonderful that you’ll get to watch owlets leave the nest!
Screech owls are pretty adaptable birds, Heather. I don’t know how urban your garden is, but all screech owls need is a tree canopy to live and hunt in. —Pam
Thanks for the update on the owls! I bet that was quite the thing to see, gliding into the box with a treat. They are so silent and mysterious when flying.
They are silent fliers. We never hear them leave their roosts—so unlike the noisy white-winged doves. —Pam
Thanks for sharing the owl updates. Good looking birds – I need to get an owl box up in my backyard. My dogs heard an owl hooting a while back – woke me up and insisted on a go look see.
Good pics of the datura and jerusalem sage! My datura must be a late bloomer – nothing yet.
Mine just started too, Chris. I bet you’ll have blooms soon. Do put an owl box up. Owl-watching adds so much fun and interest to the garden. —Pam
How exciting for you. Better watch your head. Why don’t they sit in the box during the day? I’m afraid we haven’t seen any sign of an owl in our box in a week so we might have to wait until next year.
Mama Owl moves out of the owl box when the chicks hatch and begin growing, as space becomes tight. You may well have chicks, not an empty nest. It’s possible that Mama and Papa Owl are roosting on branches during the day, blending in with their excellent camouflage, and hunting to feed the chicks at night. —Pam
Love that you get to watch an owl family everyday! Thanks for letting the rest of us enjoy right along with you. My datura just had its first bloom recently, too, but no more buds in sight yet. That scent, along with freesia and plumeria, is one of my favorites.
Those are all such fragrant plants. And the star jasmine—don’t forget that one! —Pam
Love your owl photos and stories. I had a memorable encounter with a screech owl once…he/she made passes at my head as I stooped next to the fennel in my garden. I was counting black swallowtail caterpillars (there were twelve). When I went out the next day there were 8. Only two made it to butterfly-dom. Now I know that if a screech owl swoops down at your head making castanet noises, take off.
I hated losing the caterpillars but owls have mouths to feed too.
I guess it thought you were trying to take its food supply? How funny! I’ve never had an owl act aggressively toward me in the three years we’ve seen them in the owl box. But now I know to stay away from any caterpillars. —Pam
How cool, to have your owl family there. Can’t wait to see those babies peeking out.
Thanks for keeping us posted.
I’m hoping for owlet pictures in the next week or two. —Pam
That moth looks like it is furry. I always want to pet these huge moths. Wonderful photos. Happy spring, happy May Day.
Yes, those moths look pettable, don’t they? Happy spring, Lisa. —Pam
Yeah, I never realized how many mice/rats there were in the area around our house until our cat was trying to teach the kitten to hunt. blech…
Ha! Good thing you had a couple of cats. —Pam
Do you know if that’s a western or eastern screech owl? Looks a bit different than the one I saw in our backyard a while ago. Trying to figure out what kind it is:
https://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/316381_10101106927789710_7951835_72751963_1216073384_n.jpg
Put up a screech owl box with a small 3″ hole about a year ago but no luck yet.
Ours are eastern screech owls, Matt. I understand that east of the Rockies it’s all eastern screeches. Here’s a site with more information about the two screech owl species. And our box was up for a year before we got an owl. Maybe you’ll be lucky next year. If not, perhaps a new location for the box? —Pam