Barbara waved me over to her yard yesterday around 9 a.m. to see two Eastern Screech Owls sitting in her front yard pecan tree. Not only did I get pictures this time, I also got a shot of an owl pellet. (An owl pellet is the remains of a meal. The owl eats a mouse, digests the good parts and regurgitates the fur and bones in a little pellet that looks a lot like a furball. Here's a link to a cool owl pellet site.)
The first pic shows both owls and the second is a closeup of the adult. These guys can sometimes appear Red or brown but these guys are the gray morph variety. We still don't know where they nest, but they obviously live in or near Barbara's and Mike's yard. See this site of a screech owl nest box. (Barbara finds owl pellets frequently.) They were quite aware we were staring at them, but quite unconcerned. I still don't know if the smaller one was simply a female, or a juvenile. I'm thinking juvenile cuz nesting time ended in mid-May (according to the nest-box guy named Chris).
Here's the pellet shot I took. I wan't smart enough to collect it for further examination. I went back in he afternoon and it was gone.
By the way, the raptor I saw the other day may have been a Mississippi Kite. It's description most closely fits what I saw. They migrate through here, but generally don't hang around. Eats large insects, mainly.
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