Volume 8 Issue 2

March 2008

HOO’S THERE?
By Barbara Gay

Wow that’s a lot of racket! Someone’s out there, but it’s eleven o’clock in the morning.  Out I scamper, bin’s in hand.  I walk the fence line along the side of my house; it’s the Lake Sumter County line and has a nice mature growth of various Oaks and Pines.  The racket is being made by every bird in the neighborhood and the crows are the loudest.  I scourer the trees but with no success and now here come the gals for Bridge.

The choirs starts and stops all during our card game and I’m itching to get out there again.  Finally it’s 4:30 pm and my company has departed.  The scolding troop has moved closer to my house and the Pileated Woodpeckers are flying out over my house in circles and they are not happy.  The bin’s go up as I once again hope to find the uninvited guest.  What camouflage, as they not 25 feet from me, nestled close to the trunk of an Oak, is a Great Horned Owl not more than 6 feet off the ground.  His mouth is open and his throat is going in and out and he can barely keep those big eyes open.  This is one stressed out bird!  It appears he has something in his talons.  I watch the Owl for a half hour and finally he repositions himself and I’m able to see the half eaten Opossum that he clutches.  This was most likely last night’s dinner and was more than he could eat in one meal. The neighborhood mob had harassed him all day, sleeping time for the Great Horned Owl, and that poor bird was not about to give up his prize in order to fly off to a secret place to sleep.  One thing for sure this Owl might be sleepy but he wasn’t going to be hungry for awhile.

When I thought I had my Owl fix I felt I could chance going for the camera. Yes, you guessed it, when I returned he was gone.

All corvids, i.e. Crows, are rather noisy and bold.  Traveling in small groups, they mob predators, such as the Great Horned Owl, with belligerent calls and cautiously aggressive actions.  This behavior serves the purpose of alerting other animals to the presence of a predator and in many cases is sufficient to drive the predator away. 

So when you hear a lot of calls from the forest don’t forget to search for the cause.  The birds are telling all who listen that there is someone, uninvited, there.