Night garden visitors.....

Great birds Cat!! Love the Owls and RR!
Very delightful!

:-S

Fantastic shot of the roadrunner and the Big Owl ! Holy cow, it looks like you are really close to that owl, he is a bit intimidating !

... can I ask what kind of camera you have, really nice pictures

I feed the hummingbirds here. They love the MG blooms, too! I have to change out the sugar water every few days. Well, most the time I don't get to that job until after dark. Tonight I went out at around 10 pm. And of course it is kinda dark out there except for the light from the porch. I am making my way out there and reaching up to get the feeder when my eye caught something sitting on top of the shepherd's hook that the hummer feeder is hanging from. Much to my delight, the owl is back to visit ... not me of course, but I probably have the fruit rats coming into my yard again. Haven't seen any in a very long time. The owls and hawks here seem to keep the population down considerably. The rats come into my yard because of the seeds at the bird feeder. These little brown owls are the cutest. Though they can be very fierce if threatened. This bird always allows me to come right up to it. Within 4 feet or so. I ran into the house and grabbed my camera. The owl just sat there while I snapped away. Probably mad because the flash was blinding him. LOL!

This message was edited Dec 10, 2008 11:52 PM

I pulled down the feeder and it flew off. So cleaned out the hummer feeder, refilled it, and rehung it. Just went out to let my dog out for her last potty break of the night and the owl was back perched on the shepherd's hook again. Must be it's new lookout perch at night! LOL! Always an adventure here ... day ... and night! :-) I hope it catches a rat for dinner tonight. I want my yard to be rat-free! LOL! The rats can live in the vacant lot behind my house, but not in my yard!

Here is a closeup shot of the owl. :-)

What a cutie! I wish him luck in his hunt. :-)

Becky, what a fantastic experience you've had with the owls. That last shot is a stunner. Not a hint of red-eye. How'd you achieve that?

Cat, I love watching your progressive shots of the owls in the deer blind.

Margaret - I got really close to the owl and he must have just turned his eyes a certain way to eliminate the red-eye affect. Just lucky, I guess. Though close-up shots taken at other times also came out without the red eyes. I adore all these owls and owlets! Cat's owl shots are awesome, aren't they? :-)

They are awesome. No-one would ever tire of seeing and hearing about your own or Cats experiences.

What a great yard bird to have. Thanks for sharing it with us Becky!

He's beautiful!

Thanks ya'll...

Dad gets mad because they use one of his deer blinds as their home several times a year. He ended up cleaning it out and moving it last month...so now the owls have coming to roost in the garage. We have an eight bay metal roofed garage of sorts that is made of pipe and has pipes running across the top portion for storing boards, pipes, camper tops, and other ranchy type implements. Now Mom is mad because the perch on the pipes and poop all over her car!!!

~ Cat

I love the Road Runner too!

LOL Cat!

What great pics of the owl Becky, neat that it let you get so close..:-S

Beautiful bird and pics!! So cool that they are back too!

I agree with all of the above. Owls are the coolest birds and so few of us get the chance to get a glimpse of one. We heard one this fall for a few nights but it has been years since we have seen them close by.

I hope we get to see more of your pics!

How great !! Oh, beautiful owl , I can't believe he lets you get so close.

I was thinking of you last night Becky;I could hear Owls whooing around 9pm.

What awesome owl photos Cat! It is amazing that little owl is so tolerant. You're very lucky.

Pelle, Margaret, Deb, Nanny, Dellrose, Red, OPbirder - Glad y'all enjoyed the little owl that came to visit my yard the other night. Haven't seen it since, but I look everytime I let my dog out at night! ;-) It'll probably be back when it is hungry again. :-) I wonder if the reason the owl(s) don't seem to be afraid of me is because they probably rarely see humans since they are night birds. They have actually landed within 15' ft. of me. I'm always able to walk right up to them when they come into my yard. They always look like they are studying me. Probably trying to figure out what kind of creature I am! LOL! They are small owls. Approximately 7" - 8" tall. I am not sure what species they are. Eastern Screech Owl?

Pelle - LOL! I rarely hear the owls. I mostly just see them. You would think it would be the other way around. I know the only reason I even see them and get so close is because of the rodents that come into my yard at night to eat the bird seeds. Since I only have one bird feeder and it is in the middle of my backyard and out in the open ... the Hawks and the Owls can spot the rodents pretty easily. I get Hawks swooping in my yard too to get the squirrels and rats as well. I actually feel sorry for the poor rodents. They are sitting ducks when out there at the feeder. But it sure is neat to see these birds of prey. :-)

Cat - Uh oh! So the owls moved into your large garage. Ha! I guess yours aren't afraid of humans either! LOL!

becky...nope the owls aren't afraid of humans....and the racoons aren't afraid of the dog either. We had to put the bag of dogfood into one of those large aluminum trash cans and top it off with a concrete block. The racoons kept pulling off the lid of the smaller 5lb popcorn tin we had the dogfood in.

~ Cat

Cat - Yeah, those raccoons are so smart and strong. They have shredded my plastic trash cans here to get to our trash. They are almost unstoppable!

lol - I remember when the darn raccoons ripped open a bag of fish fertilizer I had out to fertilize the raspberries - there were piles of it all over the grass- it smelled like fish for a week back there!!! and then of course, patches of the greenest grass randomly popped up here and there.

ROFL Red !!!

On a sadder note...seems this is racoon roadkill season. I've been traveling around Texas this past month due to work and have seen so many dead on the road :o(

~ Cat

Man that is cool. That's all I can say

I just found this thread and it is amazing! I love owls! Those babies are so cute. Becky the one with the 2 owls and their glowing eyes is kinda creepy, but still really cool. They almost look fake!

Hey - Happy Holidays everyone !