Eastern Screech Owl

Burlington, Ontario. February 10 2024.  The shriek of Blue Jays, the neighbourhood’s watchmen and busy-bodies, called me away from my wordle-and-granola breakfast. They were insulting, as only Blue Jays can, something just outside my front door.  My birder-self wondered if they’d found an owl to harass, so went to see.  They were busy and objecting loudly in the lower branches of an old Norway Spruce and had got the attention of a couple of Black-capped Chickadees, stirred like me from their daily routines, to see what the fuss was all about. Sitting patiently trying to ignore them was an Eastern Screech Owl hoping to get a decent morning’s sleep.

I’m sure the owl had settled in there at daybreak intending to spend the daylight hours resting and it had selected a spot somewhat out of sight, preferably where jays and crows wouldn’t see it.  As I write this, five hours later, it is still there despite the arrival and very close activity of construction workers. The jays have left leaving the owl to some kind of peace, perhaps they’ve lost interest or maybe the construction is too much for them.

This old Norway Spruce is tall and patchily dense. It is the same tree that hosted the nest of a pair of Merlins and their young last summer.  I have a faint memory from some decades ago of finding evidence at its base of it sheltering a Great-horned Owl .  Not bad for what may have been someone’s old Christmas tree decades ago.

I was able to get a few decent photos of this lovely Eastern Screech Owl . It was an easy, no contest, Bird of the Day, here it is.