Saturday night, I worked in the cottage at Salem Ranch, and I took a couple of boys on a nature walk on our property as I often do when I work in the evenings. One of the boys showed me where he had found a nest made by a bird that "looked like a miniature turkey." The nest turned out to be a Killdeer nest. The boy thought the Killdeer looked like a little turkey when feigning a broken wing. The first time we walked by the nest, the parents were nowhere to be found. The second time, one of them was doing the broken wing thing to lead us away from the nest.
Craig Harland, one of the staff, who lives on campus built a fire for us so that we could come over and wait for his owls to show up. Craig and his family have noticed owls in their yard at night for several weeks. The owls often fly in and sit in a tree right above their picnic table while the Harland family is seated at the table at dusk. We waited for a long time by the fire and finally heard a screech-owl whinny. We eventually decided to get up and go look for the owls since they were not coming to us. We quickly found one, which flew back behind Craig's house.
This bird then flew into another tree where I noticed a second screech-owl sitting on a limb just above it.
While I was trying to get a shot of this second owl, Craig noticed an owlet sitting on a limb above him and the boys. I walked over and took a few pictures of the owlet. There seemed to be at least one other owlet flying around as well.
I also managed one more photo of one of the parents before we returned to the fire.
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