I hung an owl box. 10 years later on a sunny February morning an owl finally came to roost. This is that owl's story ...
... as told in his own words.
Hello.
Pleased to make your acquaintance. My name is OHMYGOD but everyone calls me Snacks. I'm an Eastern Screech Owl.
Karen and I came together a few mornings ago. I was resting and sunning myself a bit as one does in the comfort of their own hole in a box. I could easily see her (I'm an owl after all) inside the kitchen window watching the dog, who was outside doing his business under my tree.
Apologies for being indelicate.
As she crouched down to get a better look at the dog, Karen suddenly tilted her head back and looked straight up at me. Incidentally, that was the moment she named me OHMYGOD. I heard it with my own invisible ears.
That is really all I can tell you about Karen.
So let me tell you all about me.
Table of Contents
Snacks - The Eastern Screech Owl
Habitat
I am cosmopolitan but not a worldly owl. I'm comfortable in forests or some of the nicer suburban backyards across North and Central America. But that's as far as I go. I fly a lot, I'm just not a globetrotter.
My preferred spaces are holes. I like them in trees or in boxes on trees.
If your interest is piqued, this is How, Where & When (NOW!) to Hang an Owl Box.
Nesting
Ah, springtime – a season of love, renewal, and baby owlets. At the moment, I'm scouting out tree cavities and owl boxes for nesting areas for my lady-friend. In just a few weeks when the trees begin to bud and the flowers bloom I'll start to think about settling down and raising this year's family.
Fun Fact: Eastern Screech-Owl pairs are usually monogamous and stay together for life. Some males, will on occasion, mate with two different females but this is mainly in Utah. And usually ends with a television series contract with TLC.
I am one part of a lifelong power couple. While one parent takes the day shift, the other pulls an all-nighter, ensuring that our fluffy gray bundles of joy are well taken care of and don't eat each other.
Behaviour
I'm am indeed, a night owl. I do fly around at night looking for dinner, but most of the time I just hitch a claw to a tree and wait it out. When I see something directly below me, I swoop and scoop.
Food
Now, let's talk about dinner. I am small and mostly polite but - I'm a killer. I am a stealth, feathered Ninja with a taste for the finer things in life. Mice, voles, insects, rats, small mammals, worms are all on the menu.
And then I barf (regurgitate if we're being formal) it up.
Eating
- In the first part of my belly there's a "liquefy zone". It does what you think. Turns that mouse (or anything else I eat) into mush.
- Then it's off to the "grinding chamber" where tough bits get crushed and the good stuff gets pushed along. Whatever can't be digested, like fur and bones, gets compacted into a neat little package called a pellet.
- I cough this pellet up and spit it out. Always with dignity.
Singing Voice
I do not screech, I have never screeched. I whiney like a horse & trill in a melodic and refined manner.
I am inappropriately named.
These are the uplifting tones of the screech owl as recorded last summer.
Fun Fact: Fluffy, wiggle-bum, cutie-pie, nesting screech-owlets will attack and kill their weakest sibling for food. We don't brag about it as a whole, it's just something we have to do to keep the family name going.
But what about my social life, you ask. That's what everyone wants to know, right? I am solitary. A lone wolf. Lenny without the Squiggy. But I take my turf seriously and defend it with the same zeal I may or may not have eaten my brother with.
Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit about me. ~ Snacks, the Screech Owl
A note from Karen:
Yes, it's true! About a decade after putting up an owl house I have an owl in my owl box. I have no idea how long he'll stay there (assuming Snacks is a he) but he has sat, roosting in the box, all day for the past 3 days.
As long as he's around I'll be updating about his comings and goings. Because OHMYGOD I have an owl!
I've been a birder for about 65 years (with a life list and all manner of field guides and reference books on specific species and such, as opposed to just loving to look at and listen to birds like normal people do) and I'm giddy with joy that Snacks, neé OHMYGOD, has decided to seriously consider your owl box for residence.
When you moved the box (last year?) I hoped for this, but figured you just might be in a spot that wasn't going to get a visit, but glad that you weren't giving up. The fact that your curb appeal efforts worked is great, but that the interested party is so glib and witty, like you, is spectacular. Do let Snacks and family keep in touch with us as things progress.
Thanks Grammy, I'm pretty worked up about it. I got serious about the right spot and rehanging the box last summer indeed. That's when I started to hear them in my neighbourhood when I was sitting outside at night. The right conditions really seemed to help. I think having surrounding branches lower than the box itself is very helpful. ~ karen!
I would be over the moon in happiness if a screech owl nested on my place in Greensville. I do back flips when the frogs reappear from their winter hibernation in my pond. Well, I'd do back flips if that was actually an option for my body, but you get my enthusiasm. That's just wonderful news, Karen!
Carlies
Congratulations, Karen!! It IS exciting to have a screecher nearby. On warm nights when we drive a little ways into the surrounding farmland and lay in the middle of the road to count shooting stars, the owls have been the favorite accompaniment. Where is it and which kind? Is it getting closer? Then a stupid car comes and we have to scramble out of its way. There was a perfect owl tree on our street, with a transitory resident screecher, but the owner cut the tree. So sad for us. Enjoy OHMYGOD. You sure waited long enough!
I'm *so* close to climbing onto the roof and cutting a branch out of the way so I can see him from my bedroom window. ~ karen!
So exciting! Looking forward to future updates. We hear barred owls in our yard but rarely see them.
If you're interested in birds in general, not just resident owls, it's fun to use the Merlin app to identify birds you see or hear (https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/). I especially love to open it when I hear a bird and wonder what it is.
I'll have a look at the app! In my neighbourhood the birds are usually fairly standard, but just a few kilometers away at my garden which is surrounded by conservation area, there are all kinds of birds I've never seen at my house. ~ karen!
I want one!
I'm excited for you, but envious. We get great horned owls that like to sit in our tree line and call back to each other, but I don't know that they nest in those same trees. We all get so exited when we hear it from in the house. Someone will yell OWL!!! (the proper protocol in such cases) and everyone will go running outside to locate them. Please keep us updated on Snacks and fam. I will love to see what happens...
Well, he's still there! So that's a good sign. ~ karen
Very exciting news! The Utah comment was the icing on the cake!
He has a good sense of humour for such a fuddyduddy of an owl. ~ karen!
Patience is indeed a virtue. Good for you leaving your owl box up there for a decade. I hope your owl stays and you have all the fun of watching owlets learn to fly.
Thanks. I have the very same hope. :) ~ karen!
Best bird description I've ever read, and I have read thousands!
Oh! Well, thank you. That's an unusually high number of bird descriptions to have read. ~ karen!
Is this owl too small to harm chickens? When I had chickens in my very urban backyard I'd see a huge owl swope in hoping for a feast.
I would say Screech Owls are definitely too small to take down a well fed backyard chicken. ~ karen!
Very cool. Hopefully there will be a spouse and some owlets to report on.
🤞 ~ karen!
OHMYGOD welcome! and I am so jealous. I have been awaiting an owl box inhabitant for 3+ years now, with zero result. Even the squirrels haven't moved in. I offer a large yard and mouse-rich hunting grounds, but to no avail. I fear I must get back that dratted ladder and revisit my box placement. Maybe it's a lack of "curb appeal"? Mine does not provide the nice foliage around it that yours has.
Hi Joan. I suspect my lack of success was location the first time. It was fairly high up but on a huge maple tree, so the canopy was quite high overhead and there were no branches underneath. Owls (I've since found out) like to have branches in the area of their nest to jump down onto from their perch in the box. I also think it's possible it was too close to the road. I was very careful when I rehung it last year to make sure it had the proper conditions and faced the right direction. And obviously it made all the difference. ~ karen!
How exciting! I miss the trills and neighs from the screech owl that lived in the pine tree behind my house until a Nor’easter blew the tree onto my house. Haven’t heard any trills in the neighborhood since. Looking forward to updates on your newest neighbor!
OHMYGOD! Nice to meet you. This is amazing. I have the perfect lot for this and am tempted to also mount an owl box. Off to research whether an owl predates on ducks. Might be a bad idea around here
I suspect there are many owls that eats ducks. But if given the choice most I know would go for any mice, voles or snakes that are around. ~ OHMYGOD!
Fantastic 🤍🤍🤍
I know! I'm so excited. ~ karen!
I love this and look forward to updates. With all due respect, he looks like a fairly crabby neighbor--but what a compliment to have a resident owl!
He is surprisingly aloof. ~ karen!
OMGOD! I would love to have an owl in my tree.
It really is the best. The only problem is I am now going to be crushed beyond all heartbreaks if he disappears. ~ karen!
Of course you have an owl box with an actual owl!!! I love this! I'm excited for the pictures of of the baby owl fluff balls (owlets). You've inspired me to research owl boxes because we have the perfect tree in our backyard and we already have an owl that hangs out in it sometimes. I think the little dog is fat enough that the owl can't pick him up and carry him away.
There's an owl (might be in Britain somewhere) that can take down a baby deer. Not to deter you.😆 ~ karen!
OHMYGOD I'm so excited for you! Karen is a wonderful hostess and you have picked a wonderful spot. Lots of tree cover and I'm sure lots of wee mice and voles soon in the spring. Karen will share with us everything about you; much better than AI. I look forward to seeing you soon but remember not to attack Lip.
Lip and I are symbiotic. Not to worry. ~ OHMYGOD
Green with envy.
I know! That's how I felt every time someone sent me a photo of owls in their owl boxes, lol. ~ karen!