Charmed by a Cute Pair of Barred Owls

 

Wow, this month of June has been something! I am hearing and seeing Barred Owls almost daily. Two days ago around noon, Alesia alerted me to Barreds in the backyard…again. 

I grab my camera, step out to the patio, look up, and look what is looking back at me! 

Two beautiful Owls are content to stare at me with as much curiosity as I have to stare at them. And they didn’t mind me moving around to “capture” them from different angles. 

They perch on a Southern Live Oak tree (I think that is what it is) with thick branches that cross in front of a pine tree. I really like the composition of the above two photographs. And you see how the Barred Owls’ coloring blends so well with the trees and branches. 

I had never before noticed the birds’ nostrils! 

This one, I think, is making eyes at me lol. 

On one of the bird Facebook sites where I posted these pix, someone commented that it looks like the owls are posing for my camera. It did kind of seem that way. 

It is hard to see, but the two owls are at the very top of this wide shot in the middle. I cut off the head of one of them. It was hard to clearly see them but I wanted to show the perspective from my patio. Maybe they were looking for lunch amid our many bird feeders beneath where they silently perched. 

I do enjoy outings to remote nature preserves, but now and then getting such unique bird photographs right here at home is a sweet treat! 

Last week shortly after sunrise I saw Barred Owls at my next-door neighbor’s house. I went out to get the newspaper, heard the unique hissing sound these owls make, and saw one on top of the neighbor’s large Purple Martin house. That would have been some photo! (See below- I got that picture). But it moved by the time I quickly came out with my camera. Two were on this fence but one flew away just before I clicked this pix. 

Here are my best shots from another June owl encounter.

Here is a link to my other June 2022 Barred Owl post that includes the incredible video of an owl in our bird bath! 

More Barred Owl pix! I took these a few days ago (today is July 1) in the morning. I was excited to again see an owl on my neighbor’s Purple Martin Feeder but this time I got the capture. Yay! 

I was also able to photograph a Little Blue Heron that has for weeks been at the golf course pond behind my house, and a few other critters.