Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 20:35:28 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Mike Callahan Subject: Al's Owl Family Affair MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hello Fellow Ospreyers, I just returned from a family affair in Crownsville, Anne Arundel County. It wasn't exactly my family, it was Al Haury's family affair. Well I must be honest, It wasn't exactly his family, either, but they are tenants on his property. You may have read Al's recent post about the Eastern Screech Owl family that is nesting in a box in his back yard. My visit was for the purpose of banding the owlets for him. I am happy to announce that Al and Jane are the happy pseudo parents of four screech owlets between 10 and 14 days old. Both owl parents were also in the box and were red morph Screech Owls. The cottony down and pin feather popping babies were almost a docile as the parents. Both adults and the owlets are now sporting USGS issue aluminum jewelry that will be the talk of the forest community. The tufted titmice and Bluejays were squawking at the box and for good reason. The nest box was littered with feathers from Bluejay, Northern Cardinal, and Downy Woodpecker to name a few. It must be interesting to see a screech Owl take a jay. I just missed seeing Al's famous Pileated who has been banging on his vehicle mirror. Can you imagine what people think when the see this bird on his car? He has to keep a bag over the mirror to help deter the activity. It was also a pleasure to hear my first Wood Thrush and Yellow throated Vireo of the year in his back yard. Thanks again for allowing me to band your pseudo family. Naturally, Mike Callahan ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================