There were unusual scuttling noises high in the oak tree in the back yard. They were coming from the old abandoned tree house my son, Josh, built with his dad when he was a boy. We couldn’t see what was making those noises inside the tree house because it was well-boarded on all sides. So Josh climbed the rope to investigate.
Peering through the tree house slats, he found an owl had made a nest there. The owl wasn’t visiting at the moment, and Josh didn’t climb inside, but he reported that, not only had she made a nest, she’d cleaned up the mess winter had left by placing leaves and twigs into a forgotten bucket left in the enclosure.
Every time Josh came to the house, (He was grown, now, and had built a treehouse for his daughter.) he’d skitter up the rope and report the progress: One egg. Then two.
The owl laid as many as six eggs before she started kicking them out. From the six eggs, she raised one baby. Afraid the owl would abandon the nest if he got in the way, he left it alone for weeks and weeks.
It was quiet up there, and we thought the owls had moved on. My brother came by one day and had to look. He shinnied up that rope, a knee propped on the base, then raised himself quietly in line with the side slats and peeped, and almost fell out of the tree. A long-faced baby owl waited until his eye was pressed to the wood, then hissed! It’s downy white feathers shuddered.
Owls like open pastures with a plentiful food source, like field mice. Beware, cat-lovers. An owl can just as easily snatch a small cat as a darting mouse…if you happen to be missing one.
