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Northern Saw-whet Owls
Early Days
Our owl adventure started on Friday, March 7, 2025, when we noticed an owl looking out from a nest that was originally carved out by a pair of red-breasted sapsuckers in the spring of 2020, then later enlarged by a pair of northern flickers.
Throughout these pages, click on a photo to see a larger version.
After snapping a couple of quick iPhone photos, we grabbed a better camera with a telephoto lens to get a close-up.
The owl was visible on and off for over an hour, giving us a great opportunity to take photos and even capture a bit of drama when a northern flicker was poking around on the snag. The owl seemed a little wary of that.
Around noon, the owl disappeared. We didn't know if it left the nest or just settled in out of sight. Rather than spending all day watching, we set up a camera to capture a timelapse, taking a photo every 15 seconds. While that was going, Tom ran into Seattle to rent a better telephoto lens from Glazer's, our favorite local camera store. We had to get better pictures than what we had already captured!
One camera was taking timelapse video so we could review any activity and figure out the best time for photographs. The big rental lens was ready to spring into action in case we noticed the owl showing again.
We watched as much as we could and reviewed the timelapse videos in 4-hour blocks, waiting for the next appearance. The owl did not appear for the rest of Friday or all day Saturday. By late Sunday afternoon, with no more sightings, Tom headed back into Seattle to return the rental lens. Maybe the owl was just passing through.
We kept the timelapse running Monday. The last timelapse session happened to run late that day, past sunset. When we reviewed that session, we found this frame letting us know the owl was still around!
That is a terrible photo! It's just a frame grab from a timelapse video. Sunset was 7:07 pm, so it was fairly dark at 7:33 when the photo was taken. Worse, it was shot through a window with room lights on and reflected back by the double-pane glass. Still, we were very excited to get that photo and find out the owl was not just passing through.
We realized that since most owls are nocturnal, it was probably a fluke we saw the owl during the day. If we hadn't happened to look at the snag during the hour it was out on that first day, we might never have known we had owls nesting in the back yard! In fact, we didn't see an owl again during daylight for a week.
Clearly, we needed to get better at taking photographs at night.
Next Up: Nights |
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