While I am at home at night, I will sometimes hear sounds which emulate someone saying loudly, “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all?” Those sounds are from two barred owls which I named Juniper and Clod — and sometimes they sound like they are vociferously arguing with each other, as they almost sound like two rabid monkeys screeching throughout the night…
Sunday Morning Photograph October 3 2021: The Barred Owl.
…but despite their being nocturnal, at least one of them can be seen occasionally during the day — and when that happens, I take photographs of them in my wooded backyard. Barred owls are typically found throughout the eastern half of the United States — as well as some areas of the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
The diet of barred owls consists mostly of small mammals — such as many types of mice, voles, moles, squirrels, rabbits, opossums, shrews, and other small rodents and small mammals — but they can also eat various kinds of birds, frogs, salamanders, snakes, lizards, and some insects. Barred owls have even been known to have a taste for aquatic creatures — such as crayfish, crabs, and fish.
Also known as the northern barred owl, striped owl, or — more informally — hoot owl, barred owls prefer to nest in a large natural hollow in a tree, a broken-off snag, or on an old nest of a hawk, a crow, or a squirrel.
You can find out more information pertaining to barred owls at the official Internet web site of the National Audubon Society — but judging from the photograph shown below, our fine feathered friend has had enough because this barred owl is barred from being the bard of the mature forest in which it lives — I suppose, anyway.
Final Boarding Call
I have nothing more to add to this article; so owl be seeing you again soon with another article perched here at The Gate. In the meantime, I hope to hear Juniper and Clod communicate with each other again soon…
Please click here for a complete list of the Sunday Morning Photograph series of articles at The Gate.
All photographs ©2018 by Brian Cohen.
