by Douglas Rogers, Hayhurst NA Treasurer
This spring several neighborhood folks gathered regularly along SW 45th Avenue around sunset, to watch a pair of screech owls nest and raise their young owlets. This all started back in late March 2026 when the female owl was seen perched in an open cavity 15 feet up on the side of a large, old, maple tree on the west side of SW 45th Avenue. Of course, our neighbors out walking their dogs and watching the sunset were curious about why we were all staring up into that old maple tree on the side of the street, asking, “What are you all looking at?!”
photos by Kristin Hiatt
The male and female owls had nested in this same location last year and had four little owlets to show off to their gawking human neighbors staring up at them from our neighbor Rachel’s driveway. So, we had hopes they would choose this same nest cavity again this year and had been watching for them – and, yes!, they again chose this same tree cavity for this year (we’ve seen this same owl pair nesting for five years now).
The female laid her eggs in early April, and we had this year’s three owlets peeking over the edge of the nest cavity at the end of May. June was our busy month to watch when the young owlets were growing their feathers, getting stronger, and perching on the edge of their cavity. Soon they were big enough to fly short distances away from the nest cavity and into the upper tree limbs, where we got to watch them huddled together waiting for their parents to bring them food (mostly mice and an occasional small bird or snake – free “pest control” for their human neighbors!).
Finally, toward the last half of June our family of owls moved away from our neighbor Rachel’s front yard. We lost sight of them as they began exploring the neighborhood trees and the other good places to find their food. That makes them hard to see, but they will stay nearby all year, and hopefully they’ll choose that same old maple tree next year to have some more baby owls!