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, October 20, 2012

The "Eyes" have it!

There are three groups of owls
  1. di-urnal (active in the day)
  2.  crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk)
  3.  and nocturnal (active at night) 

  4. The eye color of owls is a good clue to this- 
  • Yellow eyes like the sun for di-urnal owls (short-eared owl and little owl)
  • Orange eyes like the sunset for crepuscular owls (long-eared owl) 
  •  Dark eyes like the night for nocturnal owls (tawny owl) 
  • The species that throws this is the barn owl, which has dark eyes but is actually crepuscular in the UK but in the US is nocturnal, but the system works with most species around the world.

In reality, owls hunt when it's best to catch their prey and many are very active at night as this is when small mammals are also active - it's a good time to hunt when you have good hearing and silent wings!