I need to take a rest and towel off a bit from our annual round of office golf. I didn’t realize the full extent of the elbow injury until I took too much carpet and wrenched my elbow back – don’t cuss in front of the staff..don’t cuss in front of the staff..shit that hurt. Thanks to a member in the HR department (name withheld to protect the guilty) who developed a nasty slice in the off-season..might want to consider switching to disc golf for next year’s office competition. Said individual will now be required to enter TWO ultra races this year instead of the standard one for risking our recordable injury record and for getting me in trouble with Linda who came asking for the cause of the shattering noise. Note to self, call a glass repairman Monday. In light of our competition to get an object INTO a hole, decided to go with a featured feathered friend I have only seen already IN a hole.
Apologies for the clutter in the shot, when it comes to this particular creature you pretty much have to take what you can get – especially in “light” of the fact that the best time to photograph them is when they should be counting sheep. Luckily the shots do get a lot better, so hit the jump and let’s see what we can find in the hole.
The first shot in this post was from Estero Llano Grande State Park. By now, our readers should be very familiar with this state park from all the times it has been featured here at Intrigued. Without hesitation, my immediate response when someone asks my favorite spot to bird in the Rio Grande Valley. This happened to be where I had my first sighting of the Eastern Screech Owl back in January 2022. After a long day of birding, Ron and I were walking out of the park and one of the volunteers asked us if we had seen the Eastern Screech Owl.
We both chuckled a bit and responded we had not seen it assuming the volunteer was just pulling our leg. “It’s right up there and visible at the moment”. Ever have that experience where you blink twice, bring your seat to its upright position and do your best to replay in your head what you may have just heard…well that was definitely the situation here. We looked up to where the volunteer was pointing and sure enough, there was a box affixed to the side of the tree with a small mass peeking out from the center hole. “Holy crap, that’s an Eastern Screech Owl”. Those shots, came out awful from the lack of light, but they were good enough to get the check on the life list with a promise to try again next year. That first shot above, was a bit of Estero redemption. A different place in January 2023 thanks to some very dangerous Bees that overtook the first nest box – not the cleanest view at it.
Now let’s jump to a few days later that month at the National Butterfly Center near Mission, TX – close to Bentson-Rio Grande State Park if you are familiar with that well-known birding hotspot.
Ron and I were there to tin the rare Audubon Oriole that was hanging out there. That Oriole was being a bit finicky, so we split up and went exploring to see if we could locate it. That is actually a risky thing for us to do because if one spots it and isn’t able to get the other on target makes for a very uncomfortable ride home – just saying hehehe. Anyway, while I was checking the tree line I looked up and spotted another nest box … with yellow eyes peeking out at me. The Beast brought on target, the shutter promptly starts slapping.
Definitely the best looks I have ever had of this diminutive Owl – unobstructed view with a fully awake subject. Honestly, the first time I had witnessed this species with its eyes open! Quickly looked around (after getting my shots of course ha), but unable to locate Ron. Took several more shots trying my best to capture those tiny claws sticking out of the bottom off the nest and headed off to find Ron at a slow, gingerly, protect the knees and enjoy the fine day kind of pace. Eventually found him talking to another birder (no surprise there) and let him know about my find. They both headed off for their own look while I continued looking for the Oriole.
Had a great conversation with the center’s resident Tortoise and then started scanning the interior trees for anything yellow or orange. I could hear them talking across the way – Owl was no longer visible. I was sure to get accused of nefarious behavior which, for the record, was NOT the case. Soon we were both back at the feeder station hoping the Oriole would show up for the latest refresh of the feeders. Ron started up a conversation with a couple sitting next to us. Told them about the Owl “I” had just seen and they were very interested in have a look themselves. In kind, they told us about another Screech sighting they had earlier on another trail – this was in a natural setting sitting in a knot of a tree. Told us to look for a certain type of tree – guess who doesn’t know his trees very well.
Ron was aware enough to know it was a tree with lots of “bumps” on it. I do not remember what the name was (if you can tell by these pictures what it is, please let me know in the comments). We walked quite a ways down the path unable to distinguish any trees with bumps… sorry, let me rephrase that – we noticed EVERY tree had bumps on it – they might as well said it was in a tree.
Luckily we came to another younger guy with binoculars walking the path. “Any chance you know where the Eastern Screech Owl is hanging out” … at the last moment I opted to leave off the “sitting in a tree with bumps” just in case that made me lose credibility. “Yes, it is right down there” and proceeded to take us there. Contrary to what the lame stream media wants you to think, most people are kind and willing to help.
Sure enough, the Owl was sitting in a large hole about 15 feet up. The tree did indeed have bumps on the trunk. Not sure we would have even noticed it had we just been walking by ourselves – these Screech certainly are well camouflaged and know how to blend into their environment. This one was also awake – not sure how happy it was seeing as how it looked like it was giving us the “stink eye”.
That made for an interesting composition as only one ear tuft was visible – the opposite side from the opened eye. I couldn’t tell if this was purposely done by the Owl or perhaps missing the other tuft completely – either case it was quite captivating. Had it been on the other side it would have looked like a giant exclamation point!
I was also busy making sure I was capturing the tiny claws that were again sticking out of the hole. It then occurred to me that the reason for such a hostile look was probably due to Ron being there. I have no idea what it is with him, but Birds have a definite angst with his presence. Some past life grievances, a likeness to their natural born enemies, a distaste for flannel wearing paparazzi – no clue, I just try to keep my distance from him in the field to stay out of any bombing runs.
Needless to say, I was elated to have this amazing experience with a secretive bird void of man-made structures. Danger assessed, the Screech eventually closed its eyes and went back to counting sheep. As you can tell from the shot below, it still kept the single ear tuft up and on alert for any new dangers.
As this is the first time the Eastern Screech Owl has been featured here at Intrigued, let’s leave you with some interesting facts. I’ve already mentioned they are rather small compared to the other Owls I’ve witnessed in the wild (Barred, Great Horned and a brief look at a Barn). Length is only from 6-9 inches with a wingspan up to two feet. There are two dominant color palettes. One is the McCall’s which is only grey seen here versus the Northern variety which has both the grey and a more reddish/brown morph. Cornell indicates reds make up about 15% of the population. Texas only has the McCall’s class.
As the name correctly applies, they are year round residents in the eastern have of the US with a small footprint down into Central America and a tiny spur into southern Canada. In my limited encounters, I have never heard them make a peep – no song, no call nor when agitated smacking their bills together. In reference to the Icicle Works Birds Fly song (link here)… they have been on the whisper side and not the scream side.
“We are, we are, we are but your children
Finding our way around indecision
We are, we are, we are rather helpless
Take us forever, a whisper to a scream”
Just try to get that out of your head the rest of the day hehehe. According to Cornell, they do have a very trill sounding call – from my ear it sure doesn’t sound worthy of a “screech” label. Lastly, the Screech siblings can get quite nasty to each other to the point of “siblicide” where the weakest are killed off to reduce competition for food. And people say Ron and I are competitive.
Will call it a post there. Need to go sweep up some glass…and the band played on “We are, we are, we are but your children….
Life Intrigued 