Fotoblog Gumbo

I heard this awful racket coming from the backyard. A bird was complaining loudly -- complaining about this owl. The owl looked annoyed. His body sat perfectly still and his head turned all the way 'round to keep eyes on the complaining bird. Eventually the other bird left, and the owl spent the rest of the day in our tree, napping.

This other photo shows the business end of the bird as he flies to a different branch. A pretty magnificent bird. The kids were excited to see him too.

UPDATE: I'VE JUST SEEN A FACE!

The owl left our backyard and we didn't see him anymore. But we did notice a bunch of rodent carcasses in our front yard. They are horked-up pellets, encased in fur with tiny skeletons poking out here and there. At first glance, kind of disgusting, but then you realize they are digested, not smelly, and it's kind of intriguing. The owl eats more than just mice, there are some other rodent critters. Anyway, looking up we saw this:

It's a barn owl, and he seems to live in the tree in the front yard. He's there every day, just snoozing all day until it's time to go catch rodents. A lot different from the other guy, who came to our backyard again and spent the day in a different tree:

All this owl action is turning my kids into junior ornithologists!

UPDATE II: pellets?

Ok, this is for YOU Jenna! I just walked outside and took these photos; the owl was watching me from the tree. He's there every day, all day.

This is how the horked-up pellets look fresh out of the oven:

And after a couple of days they start to fall apart and look like this:

You could probably reconstruct an entire skeleton if you knew what you were doing (ummm, don't ask me how I know this....) and had a ton of patience.