Several days ago we learned of a screech owl nest near our home in
Rockingham County. The owls are using a wood duck nesting box beside a
pond. The landowner said that when he first discovered the nest, there was
a small perch and a frog in the box with the owls.
Last evening our family went to photograph this nest. We were excited to
see that the parent owl in the nest box was a red phase, as the owl we have
been photographing in our yard is a gray phase. Two young were also in the
nest. However, the unseen parent must be a gray phase as many of our
in-coming shots bringing food is by a gray phase owl.
Marlin set up one camera on the right side of the nest box while I set up a
camera on the left side. A Phototrap was set up to fire both cameras
simultaneously. We got photos of the owls bringing in minnows-it looks to
me as if they may be young catfish. We also got photos of them bringing
night crawlers. One shot shows an insect being brought in. I believe it is
a hard-shelled beetle of some sort.
There were a lot of frogs croaking around the pond. Maybe the next time an
owl will bring one past our cameras.
Photos are in the "Owl, Screech, 2010 Nest" folder.
http://www.naturefriendmagazine.com/photos/
Kevin Shank
Union Springs
Rockingham County
