Once Upon a Time, There Was a Screech-Owl Family...and

With the demise of World Bird Wednesday, (Dave, our friend Springman has taken a rest from his meme after over a year and a half).  
Happy resting Dave, and thank you!

Thank you to our friend Stewart M, of: 
Paying Ready Attention-Photo Gallery
who has stepped in and started a new meme.........  
Wild Bird Wednesday
To view other bird images shared from around the world, visit at :

(http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/)

Back in the late 1970's, and early 1980's, when we had our federal permit to rehab and release Birds of Prey, the majority of what we received, were Eastern Screech-Owls. The Veterinarian from the Louisville Zoo would bring them to us and then whenever he did an educational series, or needed one for a television interview, he would borrow one of ours. They are delightful little Owls and they have great personalities and the voice they make, sounds like you have just entered a jungle environment...well just about. We really enjoyed them.

There are 2 colour variations, of gray and, or red.

Mid-May of this year, my sister who lives in Louisville rang me up one afternoon, and she was quite upset. Her exact words were..." You won't believe what I have in my bathtub." I said..." I cannot imagine, what is it?" "A baby Owlet, and it was on my front stoop and it was all wet from the rain, and I brought it in and placed it into a bucket and then put that in the bathtub and closed the door."
She has 3 cats and a dog, and she certainly did not desire them getting hold of the young one.  My sister is physically disabled, and she needed me to come to the rescue.

Once I arrived, and saw the little one, it was just adorable! First, I set out to find the trees near her front door stoop and try to figure out a plan. There were only 2 small trees, maybe 15 to 20 foot tall, a White Pine and a Holly tree, side by side. There was a very large Oak tree and Maple tree in from of those half way to the road. I had already decided on the tree, when I saw 2 other Owlets.
Perfect!  The proper tree choice had been selected.

Several weeks earlier, I had taken a few images of an adult Screech-Owl in my sister's backyard during daylight hours.
The Cardinals were having a fit, because they had a nest in the tree where the Owl set up to do it's daytime sleeping, but the Cardinals and other songbirds, were having none of this and had camped out to make sure that it left, and it did finally remove itself to a more hospitable area.

Back to the young Owlet...
I placed it on the lowest branch within my reach and tried to get it to grab on with it's talons.
As soon as I would back away a bit, it would begin to fall.
This went on until the adult Owls decided that they had enough of my interference and the more gloriously coloured one began to come after me, flying nearly sideways, click, click, clicking it's beak and passing me ever so close with it's talons.
The young Owlet fell a couple of times and then finally grabbed on and began to branch hop a little higher and then...it would fall again.
Geesh... and the one adult was in no good humor, and I was beginning to lose my good humor as well, but not my patience.
My sister's neighborhood has free roaming cats, raccoons, and who knows what else, and that little Owlet needed to be safe before I would leave.
It took a bit over an hour, but it finally settled onto a branch and was perched beautifully, as I departed.

The next day, I drove all the way back into town to check on the 3 Owlets and could see all 3 of them and that was all that I needed to give this up then to nature.
I like to imagine that all 3 survived and that is good enough for me.
Now tell me that these are not just about the cutest little Screech-Owls ever...