A Screech that Thinks It's a Fish Owl!
From Sergius Hannan
In honor of Owl Awareness Day: here is a Red morph Western Screech Owl with a fish! I believe the dish is a dolly varden fry. Any fry ID experts out there?
It seems that during the summer months, western screech owls are capable of fishing for quite a large percent of their food in coastal areas. Over the course of this late winter/spring I observed this male come back with roughly 25-30% fish, 60% voles, and a variety of shrews, mice, and birds for the remaining 10-15%. I had no idea that these owls were such capable fishermen. I tried hard to follow him to its fishing spot to actually watch the hunt, but I couldn't quite figure it out. They are extremely nocturnal after all, so most of my sightings were at late hours of the night at high ISOs. I can't wait to share more! - in Alaska.
6 replies
"Why should Buffy Fish have all the fun??"
*monch*
Compared to a lot of what I see owls eat, I'd take the fish over at least 90% of the other stuff.
It's an owl.
With a fish.
Seems like a fish owl to me. If you don't like it, I'll let it screech at you.
(runner up joke: you might say it's a fishy screech owl?)
We run a fowl with that logic when we look at the fish-ing owls. If a Pels Fishing Owl is, say, asleep, does that make it no longer a fishing owl? 🤔
All owl behavior qualifies as fishy. Never trust those guys! 👀
I mean, you’ve seen some of the common names.
Pretty sure that’s exactly where some of them came from from.
Very true, very true.
Scientists should have a PR person so we can get some livelier and creative names...