UPDATE Owls - Santee, CA

In early February, we were hearing owls hooting around our camp site. There appeared to be 2 different birds. They were vocal night and day. While they were located in one of the pine trees in our site, they also seemed to frequent our neighbors trees also.

We and other campers had different opinions on whether they were really owls or doves. You know was it “coo coo” or “who who?” The majority voted for owls; not just because we had already seen the parks collection of doves but because we eventually saw the actual owls sitting in our tree.

One morning, as we started to take Karma for her walk, we saw what we assumed was a deceased rabbit in our space. On closer inspection, it turned out to be an owlet that had fallen out of the nest. While it had some feathers developing on its wings, most of the body was fluffy down. There was no way it could have flown.

We called the park’s ranger to dispose of the body. He said that due to a lack of food, sometimes a baby bird will be pushed out of the nest by one of the siblings or the parents. We continued to hear the hooting and had numerous sightings of adult owls in and around our site.

Then we again discovered an owlet dead on the ground. It wasn’t much different from the first one we found. Still a fluffy mess though a bit larger. It had half inch talons at the bottom of the long legs. The ranger didn’t think that there were more babies in the nest. So far, no more owlets have hit the dirt here. But the hooting goes on and on!

Below is a picture of the gray owlet that has survived the next and sort of flew down from the nest. The bird is centered in the picture and grey on grey. Look closely! The bird eventually made loft and went back up to the nest. The male parent was nearby later up in a nearby tree.