I have to start this off with an "I am not perfect" Of course not is most likely your reply, after all who is? As most of you know, we haven't seen much of Salt and Pepper for months now. With only on and off sighting's, I believe starting in January. Very easy to get confused with such a long hiatus. When we did comparison pics a long time ago; two of the things I pointed out was wing patterns and ceres area. Wing patterns weren't the best to go by, due to positioning of owl and how the light hits that area. I almost never seemed to have a problem going by the bristle hairs around the ceres and bill. On Pepper she has a slight hump in that area, but basically more curved. Salt on the other hand has/had a very pronounced hump, giving him what looked like a heck of a 'schnoz'. Well it seems I may have a problem now. I have thought that the owl we have been seeing the most of has been Pepper (due to the not so big hump, the overall size, and the body language). This Owl has been almost always sitting on the side branch while another owl has been seemingly courting, with screeches - flybys - twitters, etc. We have not seen that owl in the viewing area until, I believe Friday night. That Owl is not to coordinated it seems. Heard lots of thumps, and crashes. You will see in the video I'm posting. This video is 10 minutes long, I tried to shorten as much as I could, I need you to hear and see and help me to figure this out. I will give you the exact times, so you know what is going on. Would appreciate your honest thoughts. You can post here or on the Salt and Pepper facebook page. Thanks~ ~ ~ Bonz
I will start explaining the video by assuming that the owl in the beginning is Salt (although I am truly wondering what happened to that schnoz) If you feel other wise feel free to opine!
1:52am - Salt on side branch
2:02am - something comes toward him, he even ducks. (wondering what was happening)
2:06am - Hear a screech
2:06am - Owl tries to land on branch or conduit box, next to Salt and totally misses. Pepper? Seems to go to branches below out of sight (during some of this video you will have to listen very carefully for vocal sounds)
2:08am: hear a loud screech (not sure if I got that in video)
2:10: Pepper? lands on front branch but out of sight.
2:12: Another screech
2:25: Salt goes to front branch with other owl.
2:46: another screech
2:57: Salt does leg stretch and listen close can hear vocalizing
3:02: Hear a screech and takeoff by Pepper - Salt follows after a minute
3:16: Pepper??? on side branch, looking around finally screeching and leaves at 3:23am
1 comment:
After watching this video, the first owl doesn't look like Salt to me - not only the schnozz (Salt had a "feathery" puff on his beak), but this owl's wing feathers are very long in back. // The second owl at the end doesn't look like Pepper to me either... Not so much coloring, but shape of body, and behavior. Of course I could be totally wrong. But those are my impressions. Thank you for these great clips, Bonnie. ~ Lilly Pad
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