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Wait, what was that, is there something in the box??? I thought to myself as I am looking through a bunch of budding leaves and branches. I walk to a clearing and see something gray slink back down out of the entrance. Hmm, shouldn’t be a squirrel…are owls that plentiful that another owl would use the box while the family was away? So I watch a little bit, a squirrel sits on branch to the right(facing) of the box and a red phase screech owls swoops from out of the the near by yew and takes a pass at the squirrel and lands in the entrance. Uh Oh, the only reason I could think of that they would be back at the box would be because the owlet didn’t make it. So I took a walk to the area where I had last seen the owls. Sure enough I found the little owl on the road by a curb. So I would chalk it up to an auto. A second possibility would be it was too weak to survive a wind and rain storm that had recently passed through but I think an auto would be the more likely cause. Now Gehlbach has a section on Renesting but this is with failed nests,1 with chicks, but not much on fledging failures, I don’t know if this would be considered a second brood? I am hoping that this pair may try to nest again as they are back in residence.

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Just after the male took a pass at the squirrel

Hopefully a new beginning

poor little guy