Whooooo Are You?

Back in May, Amy and I were lounging in front of the TV, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large object fly in front of our breakfast room window. Knowing it was much larger than your average songbird, I went to investigate. What I found was a young screech owl clinging to our fence. Unsure of what the owl was going to do next, but hoping he’d stay still long enough, I grabbed my camera to snap a few photographs.

It looked like the owl was attempting to fly up into our apple tree, but didn't seem to know how to fly well enough. After a few snapshots, I decided to leave it be and see what happened. As it turns out, our breakfast room window was a perfect observation spot. About an hour later, we found it up in the tree and to our astonishment, a sibling and a parent were there as well! There are two phases—a grey phase and a red phase. These owls were in a grey phase.


With an adult in the area, it's a good thing I retreated when I did. My father has been attacked multiple times by screech owls when attempting to get close looks at juveniles. Both times he took cuts to his head and face. These creatures mean business when they feel their young are threatened. So if you encounter one, do not attempt to get too close, or you may be attacked and injured.

Although screech owls usually nest in cavities, Amy and I wonder if this family might have been in a more traditional nest. There is a nest in the top of the tree that I’ve yet to get up to, but I’m hoping to investigate the nest soon as the owls are now long gone. I never really found any owl pellets around the apple tree, but there is a lot of leaf litter under the tree and I wasn’t too keen about looking too hard with any adults above my head.

The Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) is a smallish, nocturnal owl which mostly inhabits woodland areas. These owls can be found all over the Eastern half of the United States and into parts of Canada and Mexico. Their diet consists of small rodents and mammals, insects, worms, lizards, fish, amphibians, and small birds. Their call is a wavering trill followed by a monotone trill. You can listen to one here. Learn more about these nocturnal hunters at the Owl Pages.

Night time is Quiet Time...

...except for opossums! Forgive the quality of the picture, but night photography is not my camera's strength (or maybe it's not my strength). I caught this opossum watching me from the fence top as I emptied the trash. I only noticed him because his white face was illuminated by my garage light.

Seeing these creatures around our house makes me happy. Several years ago, I trapped and had a possum relocated who'd been staying in our backyard under the gazebo. Only after the "offending" creature was forcibly evicted did I bother to look up and learn about these interesting animals. Come to find out, these neighbors provide some very beneficial services.

Didelphis virginiana, or the opossum as it's commonly called, is the only marsupial found in the United States. About the size of a large cat, opossums are mostly nocturnal. Their threatening appearance (they have 50 teeth!) is mostly just for show. When an opossum is faced with a more powerful opponent, they usually play dead, hence the phrase, "playing possum".

Opossums are omnivorous and adventitious hunters, eating things like slugs, snails, insects (like cockroaches, blech!), carrion, fruits and grains and supposedly even rats.

Opossums don't have a strong family bond. Males and females do not stay together to raise the young, and the young become independent fairly quickly. Some of this might be due to the fact that opossums don't have a very long life span.

Learn more about the opossum by visiting Animal Diversity Web or googling them on the Web.