@christophernolen1: We had a special visitor this morning! :). The young Barred owl saw two Douglas squirrels chasing each other around a Douglas Fir tree and thought it was her chance to catch them off guard. She flew in with complete silence but caught the attention of everyone literally because of the amazing survival skills of those smaller members of the food chain. The owl’s strategy at that point was still to stealthily land in close proximity so that her next move could be to grab on one the fly. Even before she landed in her chosen vantage point the plan was a bust. Squirrels peripheral vision proceeses even movement of shadows while they are active doing something else. By around that time the Juncos and chickadees chimed in with a chorus of fast pased chirps signaling to anyone within hearing distance that there was an urgent reason for caution at that very moment. The more rapid the chirping the more serious the threat. In the case of small birds such as chickadees and Juncos this has also been interpreted as relating to the size of the predator. Slow chirps is a larger animal/human. A small predator for them is more of a threat because it generally moves very fast to use the element of surprise but also because of their small size, larger predators simply aren’t interested in them for food. #squirrel #predator #owl #danger #warning

Christopher Nolen

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Region: US

Wednesday 28 October 2026 17:03:52 GMT