SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Hunt of the Prey

Mel & Sydney have not been seen on camera tonight. 

Taking off from a vantage point, with its head still pointed like a laser light on its prey, the barn owl flaps it’s wings silently and swings its feet back and forth.  Then, just before its head collides with the ground and the unsuspecting prey, the barn owl throws it’s head back, thrusts its feet forward and sinks its razor sharp talons deep into the body of the prey.
Trivia Q: How many eyelids does a Barn Owl have?