A broken tripod and a large “Owl Tour” made owl watching difficult this evening.  Here are some shots from early in the evening.

The owls were in the two tree by the path tonight.  They ended up going to the trees near the streetlights were they first roosted when they fledged.  This evening the fledglings seemed to be hunting moths, rather than being feed by their parents.  It was dark, so this is only a guess however.

The owls continue to surprise us.  I was expecting a repeat of last night, so I convinced my friends to go to the other side of the Loch with me to look for them taking a bath.  The owls came briefly to the area but a family of raccoons made it impossible for them to enjoy the stream.

So, they went back to an area west of their nesting tree.  Which meant running back around to where we started.  I’m glad my friends were understanding, since I took them on a wild “owl” chase.

The fledglings are now accomplished fliers and quickly went all around the Loch this evening.  I lost them for about five minutes, but was able to find them on the east side of the stream.  One of the parents looked like they had been taking a bath.  The young ones were on a branch just a few feet off the ground, and were so close, I had to move back to focus.

As I was about to leave, I heard the trill call again, and one of the parents had what might have been a mouse.  Earlier, there were Whinny calls and the Hoot-Hoot calls to warn of two raccoons.

The owls were very mobile this evening, moving across the Loch.  The kids are getting to be good fliers, but they still have problems with their landings.  It’s rather comical.  I hope they start to move their nightly roosts.

The three kids were tucked close together on the same branch, with the parents close by when we arrived. It was a fairly standard night, except for two unusual events. 

We had a feral cat pass through the owl’s territory, which was tracked by one of the parents who made lots of hoot-hoot calls. 

The other was a trill call, which we hadn’t heard from either of the parents for weeks.