Snacks the screech owl is still here but his routine is changing daily and I have no idea if he's here stay or will be gone tomorrow.
I have never cared so much about the comfort of a house guest. I assume my viewing position (crouched on the kitchen floor 7" to the left of the fridge and 6" back from the spaghetti sauce stain under the wood counter) and say to him, stay as long as you like.
I've never said that to a house guest before and meant it.
I've also never had a house guest that agreed to sleep in the tree out back.
Snacks (you can read about how he arrived in my owl box after a decade long reservation here) is an Eastern Screech Owl whose given name is Ohmygod, but whose nickname is Snacks.
Because he's tiny and who doesn't love snacks?
His habits so far:
Table of Contents
Morning - Dusk
Sit motionless in the opening of the owl box and roost.
Dusk
- Slowy and groggily look around.
- Have a small stretch.
- Nod off again, just for a second.
- Big stretch now, extend that leg, wiggle those wings.
- Clean up any of last night's dinner spills on chest feathers.
- Gack up or down some annoyance in throat.
- AWAKE. Immediately look menacing and raptorish.
- Hop down to lower branch before taking off into the night for breakfast.
You can follow along with his entire morning routine in the video below.
Routine Changes
Yesterday
- Snacks has been roosting from early morning until dusk for a week. I wake up, I look up, and there he is. Yesterday, however, he wasn't there in the early morning. Or mid morning.
- I immediately assumed a kidnapping. Despair followed.
- Snacks eventually rolled back into his roost until 11:15 a.m.
Today
- This morning, Snacks wasn't around at all.
- I fell into the depths of despair again until 12:15 when I looked up and he was asleep on his roost.
- Now I am suspecting debauchery.
The good news is I have purchased a $500 adapter for my Fuji camera so that it can accept the lenses of my old Nikon camera. This means I will be able to shoot much clearer video of Snacks in the future.
The bad news is I have now purchased a $500 piece of equipment which almost guarantees that the day it arrives will be the day Snacks disappears for good.
kathryn c morelli
Did you build the owl house box?
Karen
Hi Kathryn, I didn't build it, I got it from Owl Reach. Although a box would be easy enough to build. ~ karen!
🌵Las Vegas Pam🌵
Hi there…
I’m no owl expert but I thought that getting a degree in behavioral psychology was a great idea back in the ‘70’s. I primarily worked with marine mammals, dogs, wolves and a terrifying short stint with raptors. Birds are scary. That’s why my husband had the great idea of telling my 9 year old son he could indeed “have a cockatoo as a pet!” 14.5 years later my bff is a cockatoo. Son lives in Australia now where cockatoos free range and this bird never really liked that poor kid so Elliott picked me as his person. Birds either like and accept you or they plot to kill you. Cockatoos are much friendlier and accepting (in general) than other parrots so he is very happy to talk to new people and hasn’t hurt anyone outside me and Mr Pam.
All that aside, your owl has likely found a girlfriend. The males leave their own nests throughout breeding season, starts around this time depending on weather, to shack up with her, he patrols a specific area to protect her and himself from predators and this makes him very weird, tired, cranky and his schedule gets thrown off. He will keep visiting his own nest but he may take time off for a few days in a row to make his gf believe she’s the most beautiful yellow-eyed girl he’s ever seen. He cuddles up with her and it’s adorable to see them together with his wing over her back all snuggled up. This phase is temporary. He’s a big liar and dumps her eventually and will return to his (your) nesting box.
Or something might eat him because nature is a bitch. But really, he most likely is just Tom catting around and smoking and drinking and has bodacious headaches.
He will almost definitely return after mating season- honest.
I love the imagery of you discovering spaghetti sauce under a counter top while eating salt and vinegar potato chips and sitting on the floor at a bizarre angle waiting for Snacks the owl to MOVE.
Please keep us posted. Animals are fun to watch and I love that you love Snacks.
Karen
That's not entirely accurate, but very close. From 6:00 - 6:15 I also crouch outside with my potato chips and my camera. ~ karen!
🌵Las Vegas Pam🌵
Snacks sees you if you even blink. Their vision is superhero level. He is an intelligent and curious little guy so he’s observing you observing him. He knows you are down there watching. If you were holding a long gun instead of that camera he would likely abandon his fancy owl penthouse. They’ve learned through years of living among human populations that people are stupid and like to kill innocent things. I didn’t quit working with animals due to their behavior, it was (like Soylent Green) “it’s people” that made me change course and stop working with animals - Dog owners mainly. I saw such stupidity and cruelty by humans to push me off the ledge of sanity. But before that, I was a trained behaviorist paid to observe animals in their habitats.
An Owl Story (long and odious)
One summer day, up in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, circa 1980, I came upon a scene that’s stuck with me. A group of back lit children wearing strange hats were standing on picnic tables. I could only see their silhouettes as it was late in the day and the setting sun fell from behind these mutant beings from a Stephen King novel. As I approached, I realized I had come upon a fairly large group of Snack’s cousins, Great Horned Owls, who blinked slowly and swiveled their faces to get a better view of this intruder. It was a magnificent scene. I crouched down to keep my profile low and less intimidating. They were still for quite a while but as the sun sank lower into the pines, they went back to being beautiful, giant feathery raptors who, very much, rule the night skies. They walked upon the table-stages and peacefully stretched out their legs and wings. A sound from the east drew them to simultaneously dunk down and become hyper aware. They moved in unison to face the noise. As if on cue, all of them, plus me, turned towards a dumpster where a giant grizzly bear and her two cubs were beginning a garbage raid - the owls seemed unfazed. I however am a bear’s menu item so I was fazed. Certainly not as comfortable as those giant owls. I tried calculating just how fast I could get to my parked truck that was not more than a hundred yards away. Bears are fast. Faster than people. I was still down low and the thing is, bears don’t give a shit and eat people in any position. As if the gang of owls knew or sensed my anxiety, they began making whooping hooooo sounds which definitely startled the garbage bears. The sound of them chorusing a sad and mournful noise haunted the Canadian “almost” wilderness. Those owls gave me enough time to creep that football length of trail to my truck. I was not eaten by bears that day. Saved by giant owls.
After this owl encounter I was curious as to why I had seen a normally singular species in a group of at least six. I talked to scientists with a great deal of raptor knowledge and it indeed is quite unique behaviorally for any owl species to hang out as a gang. They are territorial and will kill and eat other, owls who unwittingly strike out into another’s range are likely to be frighted off by the resident owl.
Great Horned Owls are not as timid a species as Snacks but they are indeed reclusive. It’s a mystery why I saw a parliament of owls.
Your little owl and his giant relatives have an amazing range. They don’t migrate but they live from Canada down into Mexico. We even have a desert variety who live in Saguaros. They are little guys and seeing a group of nestlings pushing their faces through a hole in a saguaro 🌵 is something very few of us desert dwellers get to see.
I used to have a lot of photos of humans, animals, scenery including those big owls, even my weird childhood had been immortalized on Kodachrome. The end of the photos was a huge loss for me. Everything I owned was leveled in a wildfire in the Sierra town of Grass Valley. A terrible and imposing sadness is attached to the lost photos of those big beautiful owls on the picnic tables in that crisp Canadian camp ground. Now I have only memories. (Sad music plays)
I know it’s a long story. I really should apologize but I think it may have been therapeutic to relive one of those rare occasions that embed themselves so deeply.
I totally stole this photo of the internet. This is our local elf owl that lives in the giant saguaro cacti- they weigh about 3 ounces and are alleged to be the world’s smallest owl.
JUDITH E LEVIN
Thanks for sharing Snacks. He's beautiful.
I have had my screech owl box on my oak tree outside my office for a long, long time, and so far, only the squirrels seem to appreciate my effort.
Still hoping and dreaming......................
Karen
Try moving it if you can Judith. It could just be the wrong direction, or not enough surrounding branches? ~ karen!
Jody
I am just so dang excited for you!
Karen
It's fun! And the fact that he doesn't really move except for 15 minutes a day is a helpful time saver for me, otherwise I'd be watching what he was doing all day long. ~ karen!