Eastern Screech Owl

A very exciting addition to the life list today- an Eastern Screech Owl!!! He/She was in the nesting box, peeking his head out and looking around. We took quite a few pics of him checking things out. This was about 5 pm and just getting dark out. We wonder if he had spent the entire day in the box, snoozing and hanging out. After awhile, he flew out of the box and went into the lower branches of the dead elm tree. He sat there for quite a bit, doing some preening and hanging out. Shortly after 5:30, he flew off, maybe after some dinner? He went quickly and was low to the ground, but went out of sight. We're thrilled to finally see another owl and to have one so close. We hope he'll stick around and call this place home!!

Here are some links to more info about the Eastern Screech Owl:

http://identify.whatbird.com/obj/772/_/Eastern_Screech-Owl.aspx

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/eastern-screech-owl-otus-asio

http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/165/articles/introduction