A fine afternoon of that lovely spring month, May, found me ready for an
afternoon collecting among the birds. Leaving home, I made my way to the
river bank, and slowly strolled along its banks, finding much to amuse
and interest me among the birds and flowers, seeing many old friends and
a few new ones. After going about half a mile, I came to a well wooded
place on one of the banks where the tall pines found safe homes for the
crows, and a few families were raised here every year. A little way
back, partly up the hill, was a dead basswood stump or tree, which
contained the home of a golden-winged woodpecker or flicker, which I had
found a few days before by seeing the bird leaving the nesting hole. As
the hole was between 30 and 40 feet from the ground, I put on my
climbers and was soon in a position to investigate; so, seating myself
on a large limb that branched out just below the nest, I inserted my
hand, and got quite a start on catching hold of some soft, downy
creature, which I thought must be a squirrel, but imagine my surprise to
find that I had secured an adult screech owl from out of the
woodpecker’s nest. The owl, which had lain quietly enough in my hands,
put an end to my thoughts by suddenly coming to life, and very active
life at that, and putting its claws into my hand, prepared to give
itself a good startoff. But I had hold of its legs, and as I did not
like the way it was holding on, I put it back into the hole, from which
in the meantime I had taken an egg, which on examining proved to be the
woodpecker’s and not an owl egg. Though the eggs are both white, the
woodpecker’s is larger than it is broad and more of a glossy texture,
while the owl’s is nearly round and also much larger.
Now was the puzzle, what was the owl doing in the woodpecker’s nest,
which was claimed by the latter, as it had deposited an egg in it, and
also was seen leaving the nest a day or two before. The only conclusion
that I could arrive at was that the owl had taken possession for the day
and so turned the woodpecker out.
So far I had not been able to find an owl’s nest, but as I could see by
the loss of feathers that the owl had been setting I proceeded to try
and find the nest, and decided to try the tree further up; so, leaving
the owl in the flicker’s home, I continued my climb to the top of the
stub, and found the top rotted away, leaving quite a hollow eighteen
inches deep with a small hole through a rotten place in the bark,
through which I could see something white, so, carefully putting in my
hands, I was delighted to find four young owls which were about ten days
old, ugly little things, covered with a dirty white down, with the
feathers just commencing to show and with their yellow beaks and large
eyes. They did not look a very interesting pet, but still I secured two
and left two for the mother owl. I descended the tree and put my
treasure safely away in my collecting bag.
I would like to know how the owl and flicker arranged the boarding
matter, for I did not get time to go back for a week, when from the
woodpecker’s nest I took six eggs and found the two owlets nearly ready
to fly, but I saw neither of the old birds. So whether the owl continued
to stay with the flicker or not, or whether it had just gone for the
day, I shall never know; but still it was interesting to find the two
nests on the one tree within three feet of each other, one containing
eggs and the other young birds.
The owls that I had taken were safely reared and prove both amusing and
interesting pets, but their life while in my keeping we will leave for
another time.