11/25/25 On 11/16/25 Sandy and I found a BNOW on the ground not far from the cavity. It was hopping around and unable to fly so I scooped it up and got it over to the Orange County Bird of Prey Center to get checked out. By size I thought it likely a male and by where found perhaps the male of the cavity pair. Just the other day I learned it had trauma to its head and an eye but was otherwise doing well.
Then on 11/24/25 I captured this clip from the Limb cam. My sense, and from others too, is that this might have been a new male. But it appears he got rebuffed… Any case, it’s just another glimpse into the behavior of BNOWs. I think we all know that mortality/disappearance of mates likely takes place more often than we might think and that replacement must occur. So perhaps this is what’s going on? If the BNOW in rehab recovers I’ll release it where I found it. In the meantime, life goes on… Pete
10/20/25 Jorge has updated the cam servers and successfully tested them. And just recently he successfully tested the new cavity cam. So now I have to go up to the cavity, mount it, and also check the video feed cable – which is a bit arduous. Any case, I hope to get this done soon and get live cavity video streaming again. Sorry this is taking so long. I will also check the trail cam because I currently have no idea why it’s being so flaky.
BTW, I captured this clip of a GHOW on the limb cam a few days ago. I suspect that the adult BNOWs weren’t in the cavity at the time or their might have been a kerfuffle… Pete
08/23/25 I’m going to have to shut down the Cavity and Bat cam feeds for a while. Among other things, the video servers are having some serious problems that Jorge needs to attend to and I need replace the cavity cam anyway, which may include pulling new cables, etc. Unfortunately this may take 2-3 weeks. So please keep checking back and if you see the video streams again you’ll know that Jorge and I were successful. But in the meantime, the Trail and Limb cams should still work. Thanks. Pete
07/31/25 Just a quick update that I’m holding back on going up to the cavity to fix/replace the Cavity cam because I can still see at least one fledgling hanging out there (on the lip and seen by the Limb cam during the day sometimes). So when I’m pretty sure they’ve all vacated I’ll get on this. Pete
06/12/25 I saw this on the Limb cam early this morning and thought I’d share because it demonstrates an important behavior that I’ve witnessed first hand many times and believe that it’s extremely important to several species of fledgling owl survival. Their ability to use their talons, beak and wings (flapping) to climb is, to me, remarkable and allows them to get off the ground and away from predators before their flight skills are fully developed. Pete
06/11/25 I think it’s safe to say: “So far, so good.” for the 3 fledglings. Below is a clip from early this morning of some “sister and brother together time” on the limb along with a bit of stretching followed by a clip of one returning to the cavity. I’m pretty sure that later on they all returned. Pete
06/05/25 Like it’s often said: “When it rains it pours.” Well, that’s been the case here the last few days both literally and figuratively. Thunderstorms the other day dropped 0.30+ inches of rain and the Cavity cam died – right when the chicks were getting ready to fledge! While I thought that the Cavity cam might have gone down because the power supply went bad like the last time I quickly realized that wasn’t the reason after I looked at the Limb cam and could see the nighttime IR light coming from it. To top it off, Scylla emailed me that it appeared one of the chicks went to the limb last night and failed to get back to the cavity. So today James (our seasonal ornithologist) and I poked around the ground and trees in the vicinity of the cavity tree but couldn’t find anything. I then climbed to the cavity to get a glimpse of who was home and to hopefully see all three. Well as soon as I looked in at least one quickly went up into the attic and another into the pantry. So while I knew there were at least 2 there I couldn’t confirm all 3. To top it off, one of them decided to bolt but I was lucky to grab it before it got away. And then I “encouraged” it back into the cavity (video is below). Though I think that this one was not to be denied because a few minutes after I came down it took off and landed on a limb near the cavity (video also below). The bottom line is that I think at least one of the chicks is almost, if not totally, able to sustain flight. And the other two are surely close behind. Since they are clearly at this stage and me going up there will likely cause all of them to bolt I won’t be going up soon to repair the cavity cam. However, once they are all out I plan to really go through the set up, try to make it more bullet proof to malfunctions, and also install a better quality cavity cam. Pete
06/05/25 It appears this might be the first time one of the chicks ventured out of the cavity. It was last night around 8:30PM. The video is a little over 3.5 minutes and at the end it appears that the chick tried returning and may have missed the cavity lip (see another chick looking down). However, all 3 are in the cavity so it made it back somehow… Pete
05/19/25
From early this AM. Methinks a VERY brave mouse… Pete
05/08/25 The Cavity Cam is FINALLY back up!!! I’m really sorry for all the down time, but this snafu was a bit of an enigma… Pete
05/02/25 Well, I went up this afternoon and while I discovered the camera power supply was bad and replaced it the video still didn’t start playing. Sigh. Anyway I’ll troubleshoot some more this weekend or perhaps on Monday. Very frustrating to say the least. But in the meantime here’s a short vid of the 3 chicks.
They look great and are certainly downy enough to stay warm until the female returns. And I also left a few mice. But again, while I think that we all know by now that I won’t interfere with them in general, this was just a “Sorry for bothering you…” offering. Pete
04/25/25 Turns out that I’m going to have to go up to the cavity to see if I can get the cam working again. So here’s my plan: Next Wednesday 4/30 the youngest chick should be 3 weeks old which should be about the time the female starts being able to go out to hunt too, i.e. not having to stay there to keep the chicks warm. In fact, if any of you have in your notes the post-hatching dates she’s started to leave in past years, please email them to me. Any case, if we have a warm day I plan to go up there just before dark to see if I can fix things. Something else, and I know this may be difficult, but if any of you see BOTH of them on the limb – or any other way that indicates they’re BOTH out of the cavity – please let me know. This will definitely confirm that I can go up there and not bump her from brooding the chicks. But, again, I’ll make sure the day has been warm and will go up right before it gets dark. Right now I’m thinking Friday, May 2. Thanks. Pete.
04/20/25 There’s something I’ve yet to figure out that causing the cavity cam to not function. While it should have restarted on its own after our power outage it’s not. Jorge’s checked the configs that allow streaming and they’re working fine – this is why you can see “ALIBI” on the screen, which is the name of the digitizer. So the problem must be with the cam between the cavity and the servers. But this presents a problem because if it’s at the cavity I don’t want to go up there while she’s brooding the small chicks and bump her off. Any case, I’ll keep testing and trying to repair things from the ground. Wish me luck… And I’m really sorry about these snafus that seem to coming often these days. Pete
04/16/25 Ugh, I’m having trouble getting the Cavity Cam streaming again after a short power outage we had last night. I’ve contacted Jorge and I’m confident that he’ll be able to troubleshoot this better than me and get it fixed. Any case, we’re on it. Pete
04/15/25 3:30 PM PST Cox Communication will be shutting down our internet and telephones starting around 4PM today for updates, service, etc. and they may not be restored until late tonight. So if the cams are down during this time that’s likely the reason. Pete
04/8/25 12PM PST IMPORTANT By now I suspect you all know that I had a major meltdown with the Starr Ranch website, including this BNOW cam page. But if you can see this, at least it’s been partly fixed. In the meantime Gretchen is going to try to drill deep and restore this page so that the comments are current and not missing the last two years or so… Though she might not be able to get to this until Thursday 4/10. But feel free to comment now as usual; they should appear normally. I’m also about to try to restore the 4 video feeds. So if you don’t see them now please wait a bit and refresh the page. I’m hoping I’ll have this done before 1PM PST.
Sorry about all this and thanks for your understanding and patience. Pete
1/23/23 I have been working with Jorge to try to fix all the cams. But the problems are a little bit baffling. I still don’t know why the Trail and the Limb cam aren’t working and Jorge recently identified a failed hard drive in the PC that powers the Cavity and Bat cams. So I’m trying to deal with all this but the fixes haven’t been straight forward. Sigh… Pete
8/22/22 Hey y’all, I’m really sorry about all the cam probs and will try to fix them ASAP. Was taking a little vacay last week but now am back in the saddle. Any case, I think the Cavity and Bat cam are now back up after a little switcher meltdown that I luckily was able to quickly fix. But the Trail and Limb cams are still frustrating me about why they aren’t working. Nonetheless will try to focus more on fixing them tomorrow. Thanks again for your patience. Pete
8/8/22 Trail and Limb cam update. I’m having a lot of trouble trying to isolate why these cams aren’t working again. Typically, when we have a power outage they automatically come back online when power is restored. But this time it didn’t happen and I have yet to figure out why not. I will keep trying and appreciate your patience. BTW, being so darn hot here these days just adds to my frustration… Thanks, Pete
8/6/22 OK, the Cavity AND Bat cams should now both be back up, though I still need to troubleshoot the Nest Cams that are on the Limb and Trail. I’m quite sure I’ll figure them out, but for now that they didn’t automatically come back after our power was restored baffles me. Stay tuned… Thanks, Pete
8/4/22 Tomorrow, Friday August 5, SCEdison will be cutting off our power to do some maintenance. This will likely be between 9AM and 3PM PST, so the cams will be off. When power is restored it will take me a bit to recreate the YouTube Cavity and Bat cam URLS and restore them to the page. Thanks.
Pete
3/4/22 I cleaned the bat cam lens today so hopefully you now have a clearer view of the box. Am also looking into buying a new cavity cam that has a built in mic so I can replace the current cam and not have to deal with a separate mic. So stay tuned. In meantime pls know I’m peddling as fast as I can… Thanks. Pete
1/28/22 I’m really sorry, folks. I’m just having a lot of trouble getting the cavity cam to show again on the page. Jorge and I are in touch so hopefully will be able to figure out soon. Pete
1/27/22 Sorry, but I’m having trouble getting the Cavity and Batbox cam YouTube feeds restarted after our power was restored around 4:30PM PST today. I just contacted Jorge who I know will be able to bail me out of this mess as he always has… In the meantime, thanks for your patience. Pete
1/27/22 Cams will be down for most of today as SC Edison replaces a power pole. Should be back up again around 5PM PST. Pete
12/09/21 We have been part of the CA Mountain Lion Project for a very long time with many cougars having been GPS collared at Starr Ranch and, as of last count, at least 5 using Starr Ranch’s Bell Canyon as a major movement corridor. Recently, The CMLP partnered with FLOAT to try to raise a few bucks via T-shirt sales. So if interested, visit: https://float.org/collections/california-mountain-lion-project. Thanks, Pete
11/28/21 Cavity cam should be back up. Sorry for the delay. As usual, Jorge helped walk me though the process once again… Only thing left to do is try to figure out why the Cavity and Bat cams don’t auto play when you load the page. Pete
11/26/21 Our power is back on as of 11AM PST and I was able to recreate the YouTube stream for the Bat Cam and get it back up. But am having trouble with the Cavity Cam. May turn out to be a cam hardware problem. Any case, I’ll attack this problem early next week. Will be a lot of cleaning up of wiring and connections, which I hope are the easy fixes to the current problem as well as the flaky audio and interference often seen on the video. Never a dull moment… Pete
11/25/21 Cams are down due to high winds staring last night and SCEdison cut our power for fire/safety reasons (There’s a 12KV power line that provides us our electricity running over almost a mile of dry grass and coastal sage scrub – so we get it…) Any case, winds are supposed to be calm again by tomorrow AM (Friday). If so, and and as soon as we get our electricity back, I’ll relaunch the cams. Pete
11/12/21 Thanks to some tips from scylla and Jorge – and me finally realizing that I had copied the wrong link, DOH!!! – all 4 cams should be up again. Sorry for the delay. Pete
11/11/21 Still having problems getting new YouTube feeds going for the Cavity and Bat cams. At least Firefox doesn’t like it although it was just a cut and paste of a new URL over an old one. Pete
11/10/21 I’m having trouble relaunching the Cavity and Bat Box streams. I’ve contacted Jorge, who as we all know is a whiz at this. So I suspect he’ll get them back up ASAP. Pete
11/9/21 SC Edison has to do a pole repair at Starr Ranch so our power will be down today from about 11AM thru 3PM PST. All cams will be off during this time. Also, it may take me a while to get two of the feeds back up that use YouTube streaming once the power comes back on. They’ll need new URLs. Thanks, Pete
8/12/21 I just took the HOFI cam offline and will put it back up if/when the HOFI’s return next spring. Chances are high that they will. Pete
5/11/21 I just took the Trail Cam offline and replaced it with a House Finch cam for now. I just noticed today that the HOFI’s had a nest at our office and, as luck would have it, the cam from last season was already in place. However, I’ll still monitor the trail cam and post vids when something interesting walks by. Like Earlier this Morning…
3/16/21 Interesting that the male has been a no-show for a while. Could be something happened to him, but also could be that he’s getting in the “mode” of roosting outside the cavity as he eventually has in the past as chicks start hatching and it starts to get a little crowded in the cavity. However, it seems a bit early for that. Any case, let’s just see how things unfold. Pete
3/14/21 Hmmmm, 32 days since first egg laid? First hatch should be soon…
In meantime, for those who sent me their t-shirt info as part of your egg pledge I need a little more time than anticipated to send them to you. I’m reluctant to go to the post office due to this covid mess. However, I’m fully set up at the ranch to weigh and print correct postage. The down side is that the USPS is getting pickier about what they’ll allow to be left at our mailbox for pickup. They’ve twice returned a t-shirt to Wynne that had the correct postage. It was because it was “bulky” that they didn’t accept it (?!). And this was not done by our really great mail carrier, Tim. It had gone through the system after he picked it up so he was compelled to return it. Any case, I ask for your patience. You’ll eventually get your t-shirt. Thanks. Pete
3/3/21
Thank you EVERYONE who donated to the 2021 Egg Pledge! This means A LOT to Sandy and me and really helps Starr Ranch. And also to PLowrie who kept this all organized so well!
For those who donated $5 or more, this is the T-shirt link for you to go to so you can provide the info I need to send you a Starr Ranch T-shirt. It uses the “old” Starr Ranch website look so there might be some bad links in the right side bar. But the form should work fine.
Note: I have plenty of T-shirts except that I’m out of Short Sleeve Adult Medium. Sizes tend to run large so, if you think you’re a medium, a small would probably work. Pete
2/24/21 Latest egg dates:
#1 – 2/12/21 – 9:13 am
#2 – 2/14/21 – 12:39 pm
#3 – 2/16/21 – 5:52 pm
#4 – 2/18/21 – 9:38 pm
#5 – 2/21/21 – 2:03 am
#6 – 2/23/21 – 11:40 am
Pete
2/21/21 Thanks to all who are pledging a donation/egg or contribute to Starr Ranch in other ways! Given that Sandy and I have to raise a few hundred thousand dollars every year to keep the wheels on Starr Ranch, this all helps! Eggs laid as of today:
#1 – 2/12/21 – 9:13 am
#2 – 2/14/21 – 12:39 pm
#3 – 2/16/21 – 5:52 pm
#4 – 2/18/21 – 9:38 pm
#5 – 2/21/21 – 2:03 am
Pete
2/16/21 The Cavity and Bat Cams should now automatically play when you load the page. Jorge discovered that even if the code included the autoplay command, they wouldn’t because YouTube was reluctant to have embedded video that might have mic/audio suddenly start playing upon loading a page and blast the user with unexpected sound. So he found the code to have these two videos load with the sound defaulted to mute. Which is a non-issue because neither of these feeds has audio… Thanks, Jorge! Pete
2/7/21 Gretchen told me that the plugin that allows one to add a pic to a comment is no longer supported. So she’s looking for another one. Pete
2/6/21 The Limb cam is now running and also has an active mic in the vicinity of the cavity. But two things:
1) If you want to hear the audio make sure the mic (speaker icon) is clicked to “on” in (usually) the lower or upper right corner of the Limb cam feed.
2)There’s a longer delay before you see/hear the live Limb cam feed than the Cavity cam feed. So while you might hear audio from the Limb cam mic it likely won’t sync with the Cavity cam activity. Pete
2/1/21 This is part of the nuts and bolts needed to keep the cams going. But it’s fun for me. Love doing it. Just wish there weren’t so many tech glitches to deal with. Then again, that’s just part of the deal. Pete
1/30/21 I started working on replacing the PTZ cam today. But among other things, mice have chewed a bunch of wires so I have a lot of repairs to do and may have to pull new wires. So this may take some time. But I’m hoping that if not by tomorrow, maybe Monday things will be back to “normal” again. (But is there any such thing a “normal” any more…?) Pete
1/29/21 Trail cam change is done. Pete
1/29/21 I’m about to change the trail cam to a better, hopefully higher resolution, model so it may be down for a while. Also, when things dry out here a bit, tomorrow I’m going to go up to the cavity after dark and after the pair has left and install a static cam in place of the PTZ to view the limb activity. It will also have a mic so it should be able to pick up audio in the cavity as well. Pete
1/29/21 All – Please don’t put your email address in a comment. It’s way too easy for a bot to grab it and then start using it to spam you. If you want to get in touch with another viewer just send an email to me and I’ll email that person asking if it’s OK for me to share their email with you. I’m happy to do this. Pete
1/21/21 I’ve emailed Jorge about the constant cavity cam buffering. Will fix as soon as I hear from him. In meantime I removed the 360X270 cavity stream. Was redundant anyway and just wasting bandwidth. Pete
Looks like she’s home again for the day 🙂
Maybe mama reclaiming her home now that the kids have left?
Owl just entered the cavity, brief poke around the floor, preening chin.
And he is off into the night!
Preening and getting all gussied up for the big evening ahead!
Ohhhhhh….lookie what I see! A little barn owl snoozing in the doorway of the Ritz!!! How fun is THIS??? 😍🦉
WOWZA! What a nifty surprise to check and see a many spotted Barn Owl in the Ritz!! l sure am smiling!! 🙂
What a great surprise to see an owl busy sleeping in the cavity 🙂
Beautiful in colour
Thought I’d attached the file
Owl just entered the cavity
It arrived soon after a mouse had entered and disappeared into the pantry – difficult to see.
Looks like the owl is here for the day 🦉🤗
2m35s
Such a great way to wake up! A beautiful owl… guessing one of the babies?
Pretty lady is home, alternating between preening and resting.
The little HOFI is sleeping on the shelf again.
Hi Wynne. It came in fairly early tonight, too. It looked pretty floofy, wondering if it’s one of the fledged kids. Did not look sleek like Mrs. HOFI.
Here it was getting ready for bed. It left in the morning before the colour woke up, but I expect it was the same male as before.
Interesting article on urban coyotes.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/coyote-diet-1.5942641
WOW on the article! Thanks for sharing Wynne. The line between humans and wild animals living side by side is so delicate. I do hope people don’t just go on a coyote shooting /trapping binge. We have handicapped animals by changing their world to suit our needs….and then we become intolerant toward them. We had rather kill or trap than to find a way to coexist. So sad. It is heartbreaking too for an animal to be so hungry that he eats a leather glove. 😫
Meanwhile in the safety of SR…everything is quiet. No mammals, no birds..
Sending love and light your way!
Wow indeed, I am running short of time today and only looked at about 1/2 of the article; I will have to finish it next time.
New children’s book??? “The Mouse and the Moth” hahaha
What a capture 😲😊
As it happens, the mouse just went up into the attic.
What a shot litlvxn!
LOVE THE CAPTURE AND THE TITLE!!
Super shot!! 🙂
Great shot – love the book title. When are you writing the book?
Hi!
It’s very quiet over there at SR! There is an itty bitty breeze. No animals in sight. I will check again before I hit the sack. Maybe I will spy…I don’t know..maybe a lone owl?
Hope you are enjoying summer as well as retirement, Possumtrot. Looks like out bat-cam Mouse has been absent. Here’s what has happened to some cave art:
You get the picture, but not the article.
Anyway, they’ve found that bat guano and the humidity in a batcave destroys caveart within 25 years. So, even in inhabited caves, there may be no evidence of past artwork by humans. In the New York Times.
WOW! What a still morning over there at Starr Ranch…nothing moving. No sentient beings anywhere in sight.
MOUSE just popped in ‘n out.
My limb cam was frozen on daycam until 20 minutes ago, so it was very lucky I’d refreshed it in time for mousie’s tightrope trot:
28s
Nothingness. Nobody rasping. Nobody on any of the cams. Not even a spider, mouse, or big black bug.
Yawn…. G’nite folks. Guess it’s sleepy time. Nothing to watch or hear. Sleep well all.
Happy news! Two of my co-workers go to the same office as I do and they told me about their doctor who sounds very much like my retired doctor. While on the phone, they provided a website link that I used for a live chat and I now have a new doctor! I need to send the info to my insurance to get a new card. And I told them exactly why I didn’t like the other doctor. I hope that info is forwarded to someone in charge.
Congratulations on finding a new doctor! I know what it is like to have a doctor you can’t communicate with or trust. Such a blessing to have a good one,
All is quiet at Starr Ranch. It appears sunny and there is a slight breeze rustling leaves around the Ritz.
Hi, Possumtrot. Congratulations on being officially retired. Good to have you back.
Hi Wynne!
It’s so good to be back. I hope all is very, very well with you!!!
LOVE retirement! Been so exciters I haven’t slept since the end of May!
I hope we see some action at SR soon. Soooooo glad to hear about the 4 babes fledging❣️
Have a magnificent day and I’m sending love and light your way!
Possum
Little HOFI popped into camera view and darted in and out a few times! In and out a few more times and looks like it’s fussing at the camera…
MOUSE popped its head into the cavity 😲😂🌟
Not a spectacular event. I didn’t see it since it went into the pantry.
58s
Maybe not spectacular, but still nice to see. Thank you for posting it.
First check awhile ago and saw owl on the branch!
BNOW on the limb, rasping. Nothing else happening.
It’s been over 100 degrees (up to 104 the other day) for the past 4 days with 15% humidity–major fire weather, so we’re all worried. So hot and dry so early in the year, yet Northern California is in extreme drought, so we’re not supposed to water our yards much, which makes things even drier.
sorry for the rant but here’s something fun from the burrowing owl cam at the Safari Park. Mama’s got 7 owlets and I have even seen them self feed before their eyes opened. Last week, the 3 oldest (now have their eyes open) were close the the pipe that leads in/out for the nest. The oldest ventured in, disappeared in the dark, then scrambled back out. Then it turned around and went back in followed by #2 and #3. As they disappeared, the four youngest (eyes still closed) crowded around the pipe. I thought ‘Mama, your kids are getting too curious’. That’ when she came blasting back into the nest and just bulldozed the three owlets back into the nest. She found a mouse, tore it up, then left the nest. The four youngest were the closest to it and they had lunch. Mama does feed them but it’s nice to see that these little ones have some gumption.
Sure have missed a lot this season. Just been incredibly busy with work and total annoyances by my new doctor-who I did not pick. I was just assigned to him after my regular doctor retired. There was no link on the patient portal to pick someone. That portal has since been disabled as they moved to a new portal which … wait for it……… did not work! No phone number or link that I could see either. Happily, a nurse who works for the system gave me the phone number of her friend who is the “make the patient happy” person. She gave me two phone numbers one for the new system and one for change doctor. I called the number for the system, the tech did some tech magic, sent me a link, I followed it and that’s good to go. As far as doctor change he said just call the office and ask for another doctor–I can even tell them why. Let’s see-I called mid-February because I was still hurting from the car accident and I wanted to find out why. Well, Mr New Doctor only does tele medicine and the closest appointment to talk to him on my primitive landline phone was in 9 days! I told the person that it was a landline phone with no internet or camera and was assured that would okay. I rejected the appointment, hung up and went to Urgent Care. Found out I had a fractured rib, so my boss gave me the rest of the week off as vacation. About a month ago, I received a notice from new doctor that my blood pressure was high at my last visit, so he discussed it with the clinical pharmacist. I was ordered to either see him and if it was still high, they would discuss what to do. Somehow, I don’t seem to be part of the discussion. I could tell new dr. that I have white coat syndrome and wouldn’t pain from a car accident contribute to a high reading? Then I got a phone that because I had a fracture, I needed another bone scan. I thought that I had shot that down but I got phone calls last week. I have a feeling that this guy is Big Pharma and he just sees me as someone to put on drugs so he get his payments. My now retired doctor did not see a problem with my blood pressure-he would let me settle down during the appointment, he was happy with my blood flow, etc. As to the bone scans, yes I have that condition but we both discussed the drugs available and decided that they weren’t a good idea. So for the past 4 year I’ve been taking 2 calcium/D3 capsules a day. Been eating lots of veggies, fruit too. Probably why I haven’t been sick in a long time. So I hope to find a doctor with listening ears.
Great sympathy, BingosPerson! And empathy – I can’t even get a telephone appt, they say “all appts gone, phone back tomorrow”… and you phone and you’re in a queue and by the time you get thru “all appts gone…”.
My sympathies as well. Is is good to be reminded sometimes just how fortunate I am to have providers that I like and trust. I hope you can find similar success in your search for a new provider.
Hi Everyone!
It is great to “see” you and be back at Starr Ranch watching birds! I am retired now. YIPEEEE! I am here in the middle of my sanctuary with 5 cats just loving life. I hear two fussy red tailed hawks and a pileated woodpecker each morning and throughout the day. There are tons of crows in the pasture and bluebirds in the paddock.
Before I retired I did manage to do an owl pellet activity with the kids. They LOVED it and my principal, much to her surprise, loved it too. That is how she will remember me…owl pellet girl. Not the counselor that put in the long days. Oh well!
Meanwhile, I am training for a 30 mile hike on the Appalachian Trail through the Great Smoky Mountains. My trusty trail partner, my sister, and I will head out in the middle of September…so exciters!
Missed you guys! Thought about you often! My technology is all untangled, my schedule is mine to make, stress level is down, so watching the babes with you will be easy breezy lemon squeezy.
Sending much love and light your way!
Possum
So happy to see you back Possum. It’s been quiet around here, first with the disruption with the new website and now the owls have fledged there’s not much going on. Maybe next year we’ll have a banding day again and that always causes a little excitement.
Hi Meg!
Is it me or does it look like a giant brown spider on the tree above the door of the Ritz?? 🕷
It’s fab to see you back, Possum 🤗 but what a shame it’s the end of a season and you’ve missed the ups ‘n downs (ending with ups) of the owl family – 2 great parents and 4 gorgeous owlets fledged. And you’ve missed the downs of the HOFI and PSFL nests – that danged ACWO again 😡
Ah well, at least the mouse turned up today 🐭😁
Scylla!!!
How the heck are you? It is good to be back…end of the season…start of the season….anytime! Thanks for the synopsis of the year. WOW 4! I can’t wait for the new “year”. It is good to see Mousie!
Two weeks ago a neighbor called and said they had a bat on their porch floor. She has young children and a big dog and was worried about it being there. It looked like it had already crosssed over but upon closer examination, I saw an ear twitch. No white nose. So of course I took him, named him Bela Lugosi, put him in a shoe box and brought him home. Cute Little Brown bat. Well, in the end, Bela turned out to be OK and an escape artist. He crawled out through a half inch hole in the box 3 times. I tried to let him free over night but he wouldn’t move. Brought Bela back in to give him water, some warm goats milk and offered wet cat food. Little rascal escaped once again and crawled into the vent of the oven door. I was up at 1:38 AM on YouTube figuring out how to dismantle the oven door. Got him out and took him outside again. This time he flew away overnight. MAN! Mom told me that will teach me not to meddle! Lesson almost learned.😉 I was really careful, wore gloves and all that jazz.
After reading, I found these Little Brown bats which were common 2 years ago are on the endangered list here in GA due to the White Nose Syndrome. 90% of their population has been desimated…😩. This is why my bats have not come back to the vent in the barn. A couple of years ago I was doumenting at least 150 each morning. I hope Bela can find a colony and live on. That’s my bat story and I’m stickin’ to it!
Have a most magnificent day!
Welcome back Possum! Wow, it’s amazing how many viewers had dropped off during the pandemic. So happy you found your way back. Love your bat story – all we can do is try our best to help. Keep up the good work and deeds. Not sure when you and your sister are going on your hike, but have a fantastic and safe experience. Patti
HI Patti!
It is so good to be back. Missed you cats! Just bought an IPAD and Pete helped me get my log in straight! So grateful to him and the work he does. I didn’t have a computer as i had to turn mine in with my keys on May 21st…RETIREMENT Day. We will be backpacking
in the middle of September. That will give me a couple of months to train for it. Age and years of sitting at a desk have done me in. I MUST work on my cardio, expanding my lung capacity and building up the muscle in my legs to be reasonably comfortable. The trail through the Smokies is brutal to say the least. I am hoping that by September the aggressive bear activity will have calmed down too. We shall see! I hope all is well with you! Sending wishes of love and light your way!
Have a splendid day!
Possum
Wow possum, what an adventure. Blessings to you for making all this effort. The world needs more kindness and love.
Hi Rex!
Goodness! The world needs so much loving kindness. And…real connection with Mother Earth. I am amazed at the number of people that have absolutely no connection with nature and are fine with that. I just don’t know how they can function from day to day with such a huge disconnect…but they do seem to don’t they?
Have a beautiful evening! Sending wishes of love and light your way!
Possum
All quiet on the “Starr Ranch front!”
Happy Day to one and all!
p.s. the starlings are back “in force” on our back yard lawn and in/near the pond! These hot hot hot days do seem to change their behavior!
BNOW rasper out of sight. HOFI still tightly curled and asleep on House Finch cam ledge–protecting his territory, I guess.
Yet another House Finch vid but I’m trying to record developing behaviours.
And who’d’a thunk it?! It’s a MALE House Finch who’s sleeping over on the nest site. As nightcam approaches the colours get distorted, but this one looks kinda patchy and I wondered if it could be a youngster?
6m01s
Quite a while ago an owl ate in the cavity – is that the third night running?
Owl in the Ritz, eating something.
Oops, I missed the Newer Comments alert! 🙄