Even stanger that my first two chickens were named Coco and Rico.

We have an owl. He/she lives on our property – we see her everyday in trees around the house. Cameron has declared that the owl is a girl, and named her Mariposa. And while it’s incredibly cool to hear her calling, day and night, and watching her watch us, she’s a harbinger of death for my flock. Barred owls, Strix varia, are opportunistic hunters. And, like just about everything on earth, myself included, they love to eat chicken. Interesting facts: their only real predators, aside from humans, are Great Horned Owls. They can live to be 10 years in the wild, and 23 in captivity.

If I am 100% diligent, and keep my birds within the run at all times, they should escape Mariposa’s talons. More likely, I will get overconfident, let them have the run of the backyard (I’m supervising, I will tell myself). Then I will get thirsty, head to the kitchen to get a cold one, and Mariposa will seize her opportunity. “Silly Stasia, owls only hunt at night,” you think. Not true. Barred Owls have been known to hunt during the day, especially near dusk. Last year, at about 6 p.m., a Barred Owl landed about 50 feet from Scott and grabbed a big old snake off the ground. And yes, we live in the suburbs.

You can learn more about Barred Owls at the sites I list below.

• Not a whole lot of info here, but I feel obligated to list Cornell’s site because my sis goes here.
• Good info at OwlPages.com
• Great audio recordings from Owling.com
• I am disappointed to report that the “virtual owl pellet dissection” app on KidPages.com, while brilliant in theory, doesn’t work. So, you’ll have to go out and fetch some real poop.