At 6:20 this morning George, the Barred Owl thus named by the neighborhood
kids, stopped by again. He often perches in the cedar just outside my big
living room window in full view. He often stares for long periods at the
fish in the fish tank which are on the windowsill. Sort of like Owl TV I
guess. This morning I got my cup of tea, pulled up the overstuffed chair and
sat and watched as George received his welcoming committee. (Now this is
bird watching at its best, forget that tromping around the swamp in the rain
stuff!)

The robins that are nesting close by had a lot say and would frequently zoom
by causing George to duck. However, from my eye-level ringside seat, I saw
that they never actually touched him. The story changed when a pair of
Stellars Jays added themselves to the reception committee. In reaction,
George moved over to where the foliage was denser and completely puffed out
all his feathers so he was almost round. It was clear why he did this a
moment later as one of the Stellars Jays made his first pass and actually
touched George. However, the owl was pretty hard to get at, and so after
calling him loud names for 12 minutes the Jays departed.

George had his back turned to me but I could see he was moving his head and
twitching his body quite a bit and it turned out that his antagonist was a
tiny female Rufous hummingbird. She was easily able to zip in and out of the
branches and made several feisty, zigzag dives and swoops upon George who
was clearly getting more and more agitated as his head movements and
twitching increased. Finally he gave it up as a bad job and flew into the
denser trees in the backyard. I can hear the Robins alarm calls right now so
he is probably back again.

Rob Sandelin
South Snohomish County at the headwaters of Ricci Creek
Sky Valley Environments <http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm>
Field skills training for student naturalists
Floriferous at msn.com


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