Three Very Hungry Mouths To Feed

As I stated in my previous post, I finally found the tree where the baby owls are living. Ever since I knew there was a pair of owls living in the neighborhood, I guessed that they were nesting owls and that there had to be babies somewhere out there.

Saturday night, I was driving through the neighborhood and looked in the tree where I normally see one of the parent owls. It wasn't there but as I drove further into the neighborhood, I actually saw it perched on the top of a lamp post. I arrived home and dragged Buttercup back to the end of the street so she could see it up close and personal.

As we were watching this majestic animal, I heard an unusual bird sound close by. I thought it was odd because I know that owls eat other birds, and why would they be making noise when this one was obviously close, obviously awake and obviously getting ready for the hunt? I looked in the surrounding trees and sure enough... there was a big flutter of wings and I saw the soft downy white of the (rather large) baby owls.

The topmost owl in this photo is flapping its wings!

Tonight, after the big incident with an overly concerned stranger (next post) I went back to the tree with my camera and got these photos. I hope that you can click on them and make them bigger so you can see their little faces! Really, they are very cute. If they weren't carnivorous, I would LOVE to have them in the neighborhood!! But they are meat eaters and they are still growing and they are HUNGRY!!!

In the few minutes that we were there watching them, we saw the parent owls get in a BIG fight with some crows and... well.... sadly, one of the crows lost. And later, we saw Big Mama come back with a squirrel. Inigo and I sat down on the grass, just watching the parent with the babies when I saw the other parent go soaring overhead. "Look Inigo!! Look at him go!" and we watched him fly over.... TOWARD OUR HOUSE!!

I knew that the cat escaped out the door when we left and I knew the dog was outside as well. I hoped that the owl would just keep flying by, but panic set in when I saw him perch on the biggest tree in my yard.

HOLY FREAKIN' COW!!!

Inigo and I ran home as fast as we could. I called Buttercup from my cell phone and screamed at her to get outside, find Dave and Lola and GET THEM IN THE HOUSE!!! Thankfully, both animals were close by and didn't run when we approached. We picked them both up and put them in the house, under the watchful eye of Papa Owl. After we closed the door to the house, we went back outside to look for the owl again and it was gone.

Lucky Dave was saved again from a hunting owl. That's twice this owl has hunted him. How many more close saves can he have? Dave is just going to have to figure out that if he wants to go outside, he is going to have to go in daylight, when it's safe. No more night time escapades for him! Not if he wants to live, anyway.

Can you see my friend in this picture?