My New Fetahered Friend - the Long-eared Owl

I thought I will not see any new bird in our small suburban area and... surprise, surprise - there is a whole family of Long-eared owls in the park! How cool is that. 🙂

Say hello to the baby owl.🖐

I've been saying how lucky I am to see such a variety of birds in such a small area and moreover, it is a living area, a concrete jungle. But thanks god we have our park and sort of wild patches of wood on our doorstep.

Back to our owls. It all started last Sunday. The weather was not very nice, still trying hard to rain and instead of going together with the hubby to walk the dog, I went to do some shopping. I thought it would be pointless to carry camera, when it was obviously going to rain.

So, I was back from the shop and hubby from the walkie and he was thrilled telling me how he found the owl and the babies. There is a dog garden in the park, where next to the fence there are few high pine trees. It began to rain and hubby found some relatively dry place under these trees where he heard a noise from above, something he never heard before. He looked up to find the source of that noise and there they were two baby owls and one of the parents.

Look at this gorgeous bird.

Guess what I have done? I dropped the shopping bags, took my umbrella and camera and luckily the rain has stopped when I reached the dog garden and thanks to the detailed description hubby made, it was not hard to find the babies.

They still got their fluff and just few feathers, so it will be interesting to watch them fledge and grow.

Because I could not see their parent (I still don't know if this is male or female), we went there again in the late afternoon. The rain has completely stopped and more people were in the park, including the ones walking their dogs. I wonder why the birds choice is the tree next to rather noisy dog garden. Anyhow, the dog owners came to ask what are we looking up and they were genuinely surprised to discover the owls.

Without knowing, one could not see the owl, so well hidden. And here is a better view.

But the babies stole my heart. They are absolutely adorable.

How not to love it?

After work in the late afternoon we are checking on the family. They are quiet, standing on the high branches. What a great find it was. Now, we know there are three different species of owls in our neighborhood. The other ones are - the scop owl (we saw them last summer) and the little owl (only heard, never seen).

And that's all for now. I hope to have more news about our new feathered friends to share soon.