Tag Archives: Joburg Spotted Owls

Joburg’s Spotted Eagle Owlets

The family that owns the property and runs the streaming cam for the Joburg Spotted Eagle Owl box loves Harry Potter. They named the male to honour the central character of the books and films, Harry Potter! No surprises there. The female is Heroine. They hatched two owlets, Gryffindor and Huff and one adopted owlet, a week older than theirs, Slytherin.

The family has built many owl boxes over the years, some with sides and some without. They also indicate that the owls do not require boxes at all.

Hermoine. 15 October 2021

African Spotted Eagle Owls are incredibly beautiful. While they are part of the larger species of ‘Eagle’ Owls, they are actually small, growing to only 45 cm (or 18 inches) in length. They weight 454 grams to 907 grams (or 1 -2 lbs). That said, its wingspan reaches up to 1 metre (3.2 feet) and like all owls, it is silent when it hunts. The feathers are a brownish-grey and, normally, marked with white spots and blotches. Looks like a Donegal tweed to me. Just lovely. The eyes are yellow and are quite large. The Spotted Eagle Owl has ear tufts similar to the Great Horned Owl.

Adult African Spotted Eagle Owl. Wikimedia Commons.

This image is of a juvenile. What a cutie. For those who watched the Great Horned Owl use the Bald Eagle nest on Farmer Derek’s property last year, you will remember how fluffy and cute those little owlets were. But look at that sharp beak. These owls are serious predators. Do not underestimate them ever.

Juvenile African Spotted Eagle Owl. Wikimedia Commons.

A similar owl box in Africa showing the female with chicks in the box. She is feeding them.

A Spotted Eagle Owl in flight, hunting. Look at that wing span. Wow.

At 19:25:31, Gryffindor, the only remaining owl in the box fludged and joined his sibling Huff on the platform below the owl box.

Look at those beautiful eyes and little talons and beak. Gryffindor looks like a stuffed toy sitting, just looking around.

Huff is down on the platform and Gryffindor is very curious about what he is doing.

That curiosity got the best of him and off he went, over the edge of the box to join his sibling. It will not be long til they are on the ground wandering around the family’s car port waiting for Hermoine to bring food.

Oh, owls are so cute! But deadly.

For those of you that watched Bonnie and Clyde last year take over the Bald Eagle nest on Farmer Derek’s property, Farmer Derek has that streaming cam on. The GHOW have been seen! Will they begin working on the nest soon and raise owlets again? Stay tuned. Here is the link to that streaming cam:

It has been a horrible last 24 hours for the birds in Manitoba. We are still under a snow advisory and some birds got caught here that should be well on their way south. One of those was some European Starlings. I had 5 or 6 in the garden yesterday as the snow began to come down at noon. They left a few hours later after eating. Larger numbers were spotted south of me.

European Starling 11 November 2021

It is just miserable out there today. Dyson, the squirrel who eats like he has a vacuum inside him —- or like Ervie aka Little Bob at Port Lincoln – decided laying in the one feeder tray was a good way to get as much food while preventing anyone else from eating. He quickly ran away when he saw me coming!

The goal was to get all of the wet seed out, clean and refill the feeders – a bit. The snow caused the seed to just clump and clog up the feeders. Thankfully, the birds will just kick it aside but it was so wet that most of the seed had frozen and would not go down the hopper. For now, though, everyone is taken care of and there are still no new snowflakes. Fingers crossed.

We had 11 degree C temperatures and then it plummeted and then more snow in 24 hours than we have had for years.

I will be checking on the Port Lincoln Ospreys and Yarruga later today, once they wake up and start moving. If you missed it, WBSE 27 is doing well and will be released shortly back into an area around the Newington Armory. I will also check for updates on Grinnell.

Take care everyone. Stay safe. Do not go outside if it is slippery and icy. Whatever you think you need to do can wait! No one wants to fall. Thank you for stopping by.

Thank you to EcoSolutions Joburg Owls streaming cam where I took my screen shots.

How is Grinnell?

It was a great discussion by Lynn and Sean from Cal Falcons and Cheryl from Lindsay Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre on Grinnell. I taped it to post here but the file size is too large. Lynn and Sean archived the discussion. Here is the link:

Grinnell is the male Peregrine Falcon whose mate is Annie. Their territory for the past five years has been the campus of the University of California at Berkeley in San Francisco. Their scrape box is in the most iconic building on campus, The Campanile.

On 29 October, Grinnell was observed to be in a territorial fight with two intruder falcons. He was found 1.5 miles away from the Campanile grounded. The eight year old falcon was taken into care. Grinnell had minor surgery related to an injury on his wing. He also had a significant injury to one of his legs, his top beak end was also broken and there were other injuries related to the fight. Grinnell is on medication twice a day that includes anti-inflammatories, anti-parasites, as well as antibiotics. It is not clear if Grinnell could have survived without human interference since he was grounded. He was given fluids and was very hungry and ate on his own instead of being fed by clinic staff. This means that they put food in his hospital cage and he eats when he wants. They checked the sutures in his wing and the wound has not completely healed. They will continue to check that and Grinnell’s parasite load. All birds have parasites at various levels and of various kinds. They do not know for certain but Grinnell will be in care for another week to a month. He has to be fully healed and capable of hunting and flying before he will be released. His beak tip is keratin like our fingernails and will grow back. It is not like a broken bone. At this time they do not know where they will release Grinnell. The experts note that if Grinnell wants to return to his territory even if they released him 100 miles away with the falcon’s keen navigation systems he would find home. So there will be continuing discussions about an appropriate location.

One of the most asked questions was: what about Annie? First, Annie and Grinnell have been together for 5 years raising chicks. Grinnell is an excellent falcon dad partaking in many activities raising the chicks – more than most falcon males who simply do the hunting. This is a big plus for Grinnell. Annie does not know where Grinnell is. He is just gone. Not there. Annie is currently maintaining her territory on top of the Campanile. Annie has been scraping in the scrape box, displaying breeding behaviours towards the ‘new guy’. The falcon experts say that Annie will not likely enter into a fight with the interloper. She does not want to get injured and not be able to breed next year. If Grinnell returns to fight the interloper, she will likely stay out of it to avoid injury. Someone asked if Annie would know Grinnell if he returned. The answer was ‘certainly yes’. Annie would know Grinnell by a sound of his voice miles away. But right now, Annie just knows that Grinnell is not there. She does not know where he is.

Annie in the scrape box. 5 November 2021.

I hope you will listen to the discussion. The questions and the responses were quite informative.

There has been an update on the Joburg Spotted Owls – the foster owlet put in the box with a mother and her two. It has been returned to the box once and has jumped out again. It is now in the garden of the owners. There is a carport and the parents will continue to feed it. They are opting not to return it to the nest box because it will only jump out again.

The weather was grand. 10 degrees C. I visited two of our parks in search of Wood Ducks and was not disappointed. At one there were 25 Mallards, 2 Wood Ducks, and about 400 Canada Geese. At the other there were 6 Wood Ducks, a few Mallards, and about 50 Canada Geese. I will post images tomorrow.

Take care everyone. I hope your weekend is starting off well. See you soon.