New neighbors!

A few years back I built several nesting boxes for squirrels in the trees of my back yard. Before long Honey Bunny moved in and we formed a friendly relationship with her eating from my hand.

It didn’t take long for her to raise a family.

In fact the next few years resulted in a number of families cycling through the nest box. Every year squirrels would come and go from the box and many baby squirrels came into the world.
This year there were no squirrels. No activity in the box at all. Several times I thought about putting up the ladder and investigating the box to see if there might be a reason for the sudden vacancy, perhaps a deceased squirrel. Being a bit acrophobic I never got around to it though.
Then, this last weekend, I found the reason for the squirrel free nest box.

There is a new resident! A pair of Eastern Screech Owls have moved in!

As best we can tell, Ms Wiseowl is incubating and the Mister is catering dinner every night.
Although the box itself is decidedly squirrel un-friendly there’s no friction between the communities as the squirrels outweigh the owls two to one (7 oz owls and 12 oz squirrels).