Hootie Update

We have determined that our Hootie is a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl. They are mostly nocturnal (but not always, as is obvious from our photos!). They eat small rodents, amphibians, reptiles and large bugs. Unfortunately, we also learned that they are prey to the larger Horned Owl, which we have also seen in our yard, albeit about a year ago.

Last night, we sat on our porch steps at twilight, and sure enough, Hootie popped his head out of the Owl House, perched on the opening looking around for about 10 minutes and then swooped off to do his (her?) night's hunting! It was very exciting to watch.

Ironically, the Austin American Statesman ran an article yesterday about a family of Screech Owls right here in Northwest Austin. You can check it out here: http://www.statesman.com/search/content/sports/stories/outdoors/04/26/0426owls.html