ML619196391

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Behaviors

Carrying food

Observation details

100% confident in this ID. So lucky to get to observe this little guy for so long. It was perched on a low tree branch, only a few feet off the ground, approximately 20 feet off Whittemore Gulch Trail (between the trail and the creek), near the intersection with Harkins Ridge trail, very shortly before the bridge that links to Higgins Canyon Rd trailhead. Since that trailhead is currently closed, the area was not very busy. I recorded this owl for a good 2 or 3 minutes before I even realized he was not hunting; he already had caught prey! He was holding onto a very large rodent with his left talons. It looked like either a botta's pocket gopher or perhaps a rat, but it was hard to tell because the owl had already started consuming the head of the rodent. Its prey was about the same size as the owl and possibly weighed even more! The owl was really struggling to carry its prey and could not fly more than a few feet at a time. The owl at one point turned its head towards me, opened its mouth, and then coughed up a pellet of bone & fur presumably before starting to consume the rodent. Owl kept trying to reorient himself and fly to a higher tree branch further away from the trail, but a few times could only manage to carry its prey to a lower perch. He repeated this process several times, moving to a different branch a few feet away, until it eventually flew out of sight. I spent a good 10 minutes watching this owl. It looked right at me dozens of times. I feel very lucky. I will include photos so you can clearly see this is a small, diurnal owl of overall brownish coloration, white speckles on face and sides of body under wings, white belly streaked vertically with dark brown streaks, a dark tail banded with white stripes, yellow eyes, and the infamous dark eye spots on the back of its head.

Technical information

Dimensions

1080 pixels x 2280 pixels

Original file size

1.1 MB