Just as I was feeling a bit disappointed at not actually seeing any birds while hearing lots of them around me in the woods, I looked up a tree and saw this. What timing! A parent owl, let’s just say it’s Mama owl, with a vole in her mouth just about to fly back to the nest for morning feeding.
I couldn’t capture the flying, but here she is, dipping the mole down into the nest, the annual seasonal residence for the Owl Family. Pardon the blurry photos as I was just too excited to capture the moment. The nest was at least 50 feet away high up on the empty trunk of an old tree.
This year, other birders tell me that there are three owlets in there… just a few weeks old. Will see them come out soon. But right at that moment, I was happy to see Mama owl giving them their morning feeding… couldn’t imagine these babies eating up a mole, though, with their tiny beaks.
All this time, Papa sat on a tree nearby watching and keeping guard.
A googling search led me to some videos seeing owls, even the tiny owlets, actually gulp down a rodent whole, shot from a camera placed inside their nest. I don’t have that privilege, but in a few weeks these furry babies will show their faces out on a branch, cute and downy, leaning against each other… and I’ll forget how they devour a vole, gulping it down whole inside their nest.
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You would think I’d be able to see an owl here. We have lots of voles and other little critters they would enjoy. I’m glad your morning ended well with these owl sightings. Great photos! Hope your Saturday is peaceful.
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I just found several of you comments in the Trash bin! Don’t know why they landed there… maybe a new device you’re using? Anyway, thanks for commenting again. 🙂
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I’m still commenting the old fashioned way, with my computer. 🙂
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I thought u mentioned a Samsung phone (?)
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I did use my phone once.
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Dear ArtiHow are you doing? I’m checking
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Thanks for stopping by, Heather. I’m doing well… enjoying my birding experience.
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What fortuitous timing! I think the photos are wonderful, and as a photographer friend once told me, “I’d rather be lucky than good!” (Both is best, of course!) I can’t wait to see the three emerge!
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You’re right about the luck and the good. I’m always on the lookout for a better camera and telelens. I’m sure once I found the good I can override the slight lack of luck. 😉
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Great owl pictures. I wouldn’t want to be a vole living nearby.
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Owls are birds of prey and not just voles, there are videos showing an owl snatching away an osprey from its nest! I’m spared from being so close to them and our interactions still remain cordial. 😉
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Yes, I know that owls will eat a lot more than voles. I saw one barely clearing the road surface, making off with a rabbit one day. I know they have to eat, but why can’t they all be vegetarians?
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Thanks so much for your beautiful pictures and also your reflections about the chain of nature. It’s necessary and better than what humans do, with factory farming, when we have a choice about what we eat.
Hope you are OK.
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Thanks Denise, I’m doing well. Birding is a good thing for me… walking at my own pace in nature, meditative, and gratifying when I come across rare moments like this one. Would love to go birding in the UK one day… on my bucket list. 🙂
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Luck certainly does play a huge roll in sightings like this, and you sure were lucky to spy this event. I’ve never seen such, although I do see osprey carrying fish back to their nests from time to time.
I wasn’t sure what a vole is, and I just learned that they’re also known as field or meadow mice, although they’re more closely related to hamsters. They’re vegetarians, and can wreak havoc in a garden. I found this amusing tidbit online: “They dig under my carrots, pulling them down, and eating them. There’s just a row of holes where the carrots were. It’s kind of amusing, like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.”
There certainly is no shortage of voles, and it’s good that they can help to sustain the next owl generation. I know you’ll be watching for a first sighting of the babies!
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Heading there now. We all know where the Owl Family residence is, so, it’s the annual gathering of birders, some carrying tripod and huge telelens just to wait for the little ones to appear. Always on the lookout for a better camera and lens, but their prices just hold me back.
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Beautiful. Thank you for sharing these.
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Thanks for stopping by, Dan. 😉
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I’ve only seen an owl once (and that was in the heart of Toronto, in one of the ravines there, not in the north, where I am now). This kind of scene pulls at my heart; I am happy for the parents who need food for their young, and I’m so sad for the vole babies who no longer have one parent. #torn Have you ever read Margaret Renke? She often explores this kind of ‘torn feeling’ and I feel it keenly (along with her work on grief, more generally).
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I haven’t read Renke… but thanks for sharing. We are familiar with the Owl Family here so we know where to find them every spring. I’m heading there now and hopefully I can see the little ones pop out from their nest this time.
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I suspect you’ll see those fluffy little owlets soon! Great photos of the parent owl with the vole. We’ve had some adolescent crows congregating in our maple tree of late and it’s hilarious listening to them squabble in their not yet grown up voices.
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Hey Stefanie, maybe you should post some pics or a video so we can have a laugh too! 😉
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