Eastern Screech Owl pic

[Baz]

Hello all....

One of my accounts is a day spa that I landscaped in 2003. On Sundays they are closed until noon - so that is the day I service the account and am typically the only one there until the regular staff begin filtering in around 11 am. I'm usually gone by then though - so essentially I am there by myself doing my gardening thing, which is nice and peaceful.

Now it seems I have a buddy. We now have a 'resident' owl perched in one of the Fishtail Palms....and he's been in the same spot every week. Here is a pic of him I took today:



He's a pretty cool character....just sits there and watches while I work around him. I would have clipped away the brown foliage you see in the pic but don't want to disturb the little bloke.

I always assumed he was a Great Horned species but just a few minutes ago took time to research him and I believe he is an "Eastern Screech Owl".

Eastern Screech-Owl, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

That site has a small player on it too so you can hear his hoot (voice).

As crazy as life can be at times......it's stuff like this that keeps me grounded!

This spa is pretty nice...lots of habitat. The Fishtail Palm stand is just above & behind where this photo was taken from. That's a waterfall on the left.

[azasadny]

Very cool! Thanks for posting the pictures!

[Baz]

Originally Posted by azasadny

Very cool! Thanks for posting the pictures!

You're welcome Art, thanks for your nice comment.

Hope all is well with you and your new job!

[RWebb]

check out the ear tufts...

here are a few tidbits for you:


Localization of Sound Sources

[1] phase differences between 2 ears (time-delay or differences in time of arrival) -- slight turns of head enhance this effect -- behavioral "tuning" of physiological system

[2] relative intensity differences between 2 ears -- "shading" by head, etc.

Konishi has done most of the work on sound localization by owls.

Common Barn Owl can resolve 1o in both horizontal and vertical planes; can also determine direction and speed of movement of an object, e.g. mouse.

Humans are about as good in the horizontal plane but only good to about 3o in the vertical plane.

Resolution in the vertical plane is enhanced by asymetrical ear openings and troughs formed by the facial ruff of feathers.

Left ruff faces downward, increasing sensitivity to sounds below the horizontal, and right ruff faces upward. Owl can tilt its head until the intensities are equalized, degree of tilt tells it at what vertical angle the source is located.

Facial ruff acts to collect and channel sound waves above 3 kHz which contains the greatest vertical time delay.

Low frequency sound is subject to greatest horizontal time delay -- removal of the ruff reduces vertical resolution, but not horizontal resolution.

Barn Owls also have specialized neurons that are highly sensitive to time delays of 40 to 100 msec (corresponding to 10 to 25 kHz).

[Buckterrier]

Very nice Baz, yes thank you from me also. Birds, especially raptors, (owls are raptors aren't they?), are awesome critters.

[Flieger]

Cool!

[redstrosekNic]

Very cool! Reminds me of "My Cousin Vinny"

[redstrosekNic]

My Cousin Vinny woods and cabin scene - YouTube