Years ago I bought an owl house and mounted it about 15' up one of the 45' cedar elms in our front yard. Unfortunately, the only occupants it ever had were squirrels, which I spent untold hours chasing out of it. Finally, I figured our yard just wasn't attractive to owls so earlier this year I donated the owl house (and the never-occupied bat house I'd mounted on the chimney) to the White Rock Conservancy. Hopefully, the Conservancy was able to install both houses in locations where they are now being used.
But we do have owls in Hillridge!
Tonight, I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing a barred owl in one of the other trees in our front yard. The owl house we had was built for screech owls so it wouldn't have been big enough for a barred owl. But perhaps this one has a nest close enough that he or she will visit us again from time to time.
Click on the image to see enlarged.
Besides the photo, I took video. It's too dark to see anything but the audio is great. Listen closely and you'll hear another owl elsewhere in the neighborhood responding to this one.
Update: Corrected to reflect what I saw/heard is a barred owl rather than a barn owl.
For the third time this month, we spotted a bobcat on the southwest end of White Rock Lake.
The first time, we were sitting at the south end of the sidewalk along the pump station and saw one just stroll across from down by the building over into the woods across from us. I tried to catch it on camera but it was gone by the time I got my phone out.
The second time, we were walking a little north of that spot just beyond the filter building and saw one cross the street over into the woods across from us. See my last post for video of that encounter.
Yesterday, I was walking our Weim, Luna, on the north side of the pump station building and she spotted a bobcat walking into the shrubs along the edge of the building. In this video, I caught it walking out of the shrubs and down the sidewalk along the pump station building. It looked like it started to cross over about halfway down but changed its mind and trotted on down to the end of the sidewalk and down the steps.
By the time Luna and I got around to the south in the building where Linda was sitting, the bobcat had crossed beyond her into the woods. Linda said it's strolled across just as casually as the first one we saw.
It's amazing to me how unafraid this bobcat is.
I had always heard stories about how furtive they are and how hard it is to spot them.
This one sure is bold. Or perhaps there are more than one of them, in which case they are all bold!
Recently as we took a break while out for a walk at the lake, a bobcat walked across from down by the pump station building over into the woods. He must have been only about 20 feet away. He wasn't in any hurry but It happened so fast, by the time I pulled out my phone he was gone.
A few days later, we were walking the same route but had gone further north past the filter building, almost to the parking lot near the boat house, when we spotted another bobcat, this one coming out of the bushes alongside the trail. He trotted across the road and I caught this clip just as he was disappearing into the brush.
The first bobcat seemed larger than this one so it's exciting to think that there is a family, perhaps a community of them living in the woods around the lake.
It seems like I have always seen bobcats described as very furtive, rarely seen, so I feel pretty lucky to have seen two "in the wild".
