OW---L

As I have mentioned several times in the past, Boggy Thicket is the home of at least one pair of Owls.  Ours are Hoot Owls, also known as  Barred Owls, and we hear them talking almost every evening.  Although they are supposed to be primarily nocturnal, we often hear them during the day or see them swoop down silently to snatch a mouse or frog.

Barred Owls are predators – raptors listed as a protected species – and the literature claims that their only natural enemy is the Great Horned Owl. 

That isn’t exactly true.

Several times this year we have seen our Owls  chased from their perch by Blue Jays or Mockingbirds.

Yesterday afternoon, while standing in our back yard, we witnessed an attack on one of our Owls by a Crow.  They were literally over our heads when the crow landed on the Owl’s back and pecked him hard enough to elicit a squeaky scream of pain.

Satisfied, the Crow flew off, and the Owl landed on a limb about twenty feet above us.  It sat there making little whimpering noises for several minutes – long enough for Honey to get very concerned, and for me to start wondering how we could catch it if it was seriously hurt.  That initial squeak and the whimpering sounds were both noises we had never heard before; they sounded more like a hurt puppy than anything you might expect to hear from a bird.

Finally, the Owl flew away – apparently no worse for wear.

When it was out of sight, Honey, who had been making oooh noises to accompany the Owl’s whimpering cries, turned to me and said “Our Owls are Wimps!”