All about Eastern Screech Owls and the Celery Farm Natural Area in Allendale, NJ, with occasional forays afield to Hawk Mountain. Copyright 2009, Jim Wright, author of "Hawk Mountain" -- with additional posts by Rob Fanning and Seymour Drakes.
Now that Mrs. Ace appears to have started incubating, Ace is occasionally dropping food off at night. And now that I record the night action on a DVR, we can see close up some of the bits of owl life that usually occur in secret. The food drop on the video took all of 10 seconds, and I nearly missed it as I reviewed six hours of recordings with a fast-forward. So I made a video, about a minute long, that may be the first screech owl viddeo with an instant replay and a slo-mo replay, all coming in at just over a minute. What critter is being dropped off? I don't know, but I would like to hear your ideas...
If you are new to this blog, welcome. If you are an old friend, welcome once more. Mrs. Ace, a screech owl, has been sitting on five eggs for a few weeks ...
Click "Continue reading..." for an amazing owl video and more about the owls this spring...
Iwent on a salamander walk at the Tenafly Nature Center last evening and saw a few spotted salamanders -- about five inches long with yellow dots.
The walk, for center members and their families, was led by staff naturalist Debora Davidson, who was very informative and very good with the youngsters.
We saw several salamanders at the center's vernal pool, and I made a minute-long video of a salamander being released, to the delight of the youngsters.
The kids were having so much fun that one adult said ruefully, "It stinks to grow up."
Mrs. Ace is a fast worker this spring -- four eggs in eight days vs. four eggs in 10 days last year. She may have more eggs, but I doubt it, and I do not want to count any owlets before they hatch. Incubation takes from 26 to 31 days. Let's hope for the best.
The screech owl egg count as of Tuesday morning is three. They were laid roughly two days apart. Last year Mrs. Ace had four eggs. The first three were roughly two days apart, and then another week went by before she the fourth. Three or four eggs is a typical clutch. Last year, the eggs all hatched the same day, roughly 25 days after the last egg arrived. What's interesting to note is the entire cycle is two weeks earlier this year so far. No, I don't think it is the result of global warming. I think it's because screech owls just do things by their own internal clocks. Tomorrow: An index of my significant posts from last spring, including owl milestones, owl-box information, wood duck arrivals and other occasions of interest.
I took this video with the digital recorder on Saturday night. I ran the recorder for six hours and came up with this 30-second video. Mrs. Ace flew out around 2 a.m. and return over an hour later with this morsel. You can hear her "drum" loudly during the brief clip, and you can see her two eggs quite clearly.
Lesser scaups are seldom seen at the Celery Farm, but Fred Weber spotted this one this morning. The scaup was around for about an hour, I think. More on lesser scaups here.
Thanks to my buddy Jerry Barrack, I have some photos to share from last weekend's release of the redshoulder -- with a little intrigue to boot. Above is a picture of Laura the redshoulder with her Samaritan, Stiles Thomas, who took her to the Raptor Trust three weekends ago when she was injured and who released her last weekend at the Celery Farm. After she was hurt, the male found a younger girlfriend. At any rate, after Laura was released, she flew to a nearby tree (below) to get her bearings. Not missing a trick, the younger female flew overhead (bottom) ... The last I heard, the male and younger female were still together. Whither Laura? A redshoulder was twice seen flying over the CF yesterday, but it remains unidentified... Thanks for sharing your photos, Jerry!
