Photos by Colleen – Page 21 – Sequim Daily Photo

Wildlife Wednesday–Barred Owl

On my fox trip to San Juan Island my friend and I were exploring in the van, and she screamed OW! OW! or so I thought…

It was OWL! This guy had just flown to a branch parallel to the van. I stopped, got my camera climbed over (actually on top of) my friend to shoot out the window. Usually they are very skiddish, and I didn’t want to miss the shot.

After I took this, he flew to another branch about 20ft away. I was able to get out of the van and photograph him as long as I wanted. He wasn’t going anywhere.

Did you hear that??

The foxes have VERY acute hearing and hear the voles/moles/rabbits underground…stop and then pounce and dig like crazy if needed.

Father foxes hunt too…

This father was very determined to get a mole. He was sleuthing thru the 4 ft high brush (I could follow his tail!) when he stopped and cocked his head then POUNCED (adult sized)

But we’re HUNGRY!

As soon as the first kit took the dead bird, the remaining three kits immediately jumped in to start nursing. We were told that the moms hardly eat themselves, and loose about a third of their body weight in just the first few weeks of giving birth.

It’s all mine…

The kit ran off with the very dead bird and stopped to crunch her lunch.

Finding what she can

The new mom came back with a very dead bird…which this one gratefully took and ran off with.

New Mom and quadruplets

This was a first-year mom. The den is right next to a VERY BUSY road. When she would go to hunt her kits would follow then lay down in the middle of the road. (experienced moms would shoo or carry their kits back into the bushes.)

She stayed with them for a bit…then went off to hunt.