Barred Owl Nest
In the woods around our cottage is a large old beech tree. The tree is very much alive, but two major branches broke off years ago and there are large cavities around their remaining stubs. The bark is peeling in spots and the main trunk has a large vertical gap running down most of the main trunk, probably from an old lightening strike. Bark along the edges of the slit is almost black from oozing sap. It would probably stand for many more years, but it poses a potential threat should it fall because it is close to where we park and has a slight lean in that direction. I should have it removed, but have resisted because of its potential as a wildlife tree. For the last few years we have parked elsewhere. One pleasant early April day, while working outside, a Barred Owl called from close by, giving its distinctive “Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all”, and then there was a muffled response call from another bird, also very near. Normally, the calls of the Barred Owl are given at night but this was the middle of the day, and a sunny one at that. I couldn’t find the birds. Over the course of several days the calling back and forth continued once or twice each day and I eventually determined that the muted call was coming from inside the old beech tree. The bird was probably on a nest and it was amazingly close to our cottage. Only occasionally, would I see an owl nearby. Sometimes it carried a mouse in its bill, which it never ate while I was watching, and I assume it was waiting for a time when I wasn’t watching, to fly to the nest and give it to the female.

Weeks later, there were strange low-pitched hissing sounds in the woods. I could not locate the source and it wasn’t until much later, when I actually saw a young owl calling, that I realized it was the young on the nest inside the tree cavity making the calls.

Then one exciting day, an owl chick appeared at the edge of a hole. It was only then I knew which hole in our old beech actually held the nest. Over several days, a second, then third chick appeared. They never made a sound, just sat still near the nest hole and stared down at me as I watched them. While I assume most feeding took place at night, I once saw feeding occur in the daytime. An adult flew to the nest, ignored the three waiting young, and dipped its head into the hole to deliver a red squirrel held in its bill to either the other adult or a fourth hatchling. One morning, one of the young chicks was on the ground in full view, visible from our deck. It seemed very vulnerable as it slowly, awkwardly clawed its way up a tree trunk to the first branch. All three left the nest tree in about a week, but didn’t go far. During the whole month of June, we were entertained by the Barred Owl chicks as they hissed incessantly for most of the day, begging for food from the adults and giving us great close-up looks. At one point, we actually saw both adults.

About a week after the last of the three chicks had left the tree, a fourth chick appeared at the nest hole. It was a late hatchling. Even though there seemed to be a bountiful supply of voles in the woods, the adults must have been very hard pressed to find enough food for all of them. I did find one of the chicks dead on the road. We continued to hear the youngsters, still close by, through most of June and then, eventually, we did not hear them anymore. Hopefully, they had just moved away as their flight improved and they started hunting on their own.

That was two summers ago. This last spring I watched and waited for their return because it is said they often nest in the same tree for years. But, they never returned. Perhaps they were just too close to our cottage. I heard Barred Owl calls a few times over the summer, so they were somewhere in the area, and I still hold out hopes for future years. Our old beech tree still stands beside the driveway.

Compton’s Tortoiseshell Butterflies
Sometimes wildlife habitat can occur in unexpected places. This was a good year for Compton’s Tortoiseshell butterflies. A large beautiful butterfly with the tortoiseshell colours of yellow, orange, brown, black and white, it spends the winter months as an adult, hibernating under loose bark of a tree or in knot holes, where it is protected from the elements. On the warmer sunny days of late September this year, several were flying about the cottage. Fast fliers, they would range off through the woods and then return minutes later. When I first saw them, it was hard to tell which species they were and I watched them flying for a long time until one eventually stopped to bask in the sun on a tree trunk with its wings open, revealing the exquisite pattern on the topside of the wing that identified it as a Compton’s Tortoiseshell. They spent much of their flight time searching out roosting sites, fluttering around the soffits on the building, then to our surprise my wife, May, saw one stop at an open knot hole in a pine ceiling board of our porch. It closed its wings showing only the dark under-wings and crawled in as far as it could get. Over half of its wings still protruded from the hole but it was very difficult to see as it blended so well with the dark brown colour of the knot. It stayed there, motionless, for about three weeks. I thought maybe it had found its wintering site, but then, after the warm days of the Thanksgiving weekend, when I checked the spot, it was gone.