Western Screech Owl family

The owl guru didn’t have any more luck finding the exciting something than I did, and neither did another pair of birders looking for the same thing. We walked around a bit, and it started to finally cool down a little bit, but then it started getting dark and it had been hours, and I think the owl guru wanted to get home to feed her dog, and I probably wanted to get home to feed myself, so she and I decided to head back to our cars in defeat. As we shuffled along, we heard a bird call that the guru was unfamiliar with but intrigued by. It was quite dark by this time, but she did her guruly magic and found what was making the call and calmly said, “get your binoculars ready”. IT WAS AN EXCITING SOMETHING!!! Which was a WESTERN SCREECH OWL! The other birders sensed our discovery and appeared by our sides. Darkness very quickly set. It was night. Suddenly, similar calls were filling the trail from several points above our heads. Someone briefly illuminated branches with a flashlight. It was THREE FLEDGLING EXCITING SOMETHINGS and both parents!! Oh my gosh, readers, it was one of the coolest evenings ever! Screech owls are pretty common birds but very, very, very hard to find. Owls in general blend into trees like nobody’s business, but screech owls in particular are EXTREMELY good at looking like tree bark, plus they are very tiny. It is rare to see a screech owl in the wild. We saw FIVE of them, including three babies just learning to fly and begging mom and dad to bring them food. We even saw the parents feed them! I can’t believe we almost left right before they came out! I’m so glad the owl guru made the decision to brave the heat, because I would have gotten bored and left too early without her, plus she’s much better at finding things than I am. These pictures are terrible but the fact that I got any at all is amazing, considering it was completely dark out.