Barred Owl Hunts and Eats Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers

[@MichelleSiefkenPhotography]

I don’t think this young owl is from the same nest I watched earlier in the year because of its location on the reserve. I think it’s a male because of its size - females tend to be larger. Wow - what a crazy experience your grandparents had with grasshoppers - so glad they were able to find a more lush location untouched by such devastation. We lived in Reno, NV just before there was a wave of Mormon crickets. Those things are nasty getting into people’s homes and everything! It’s still pretty hot here and stormy. We fortunately were spared the worst of Hurricane Helene in our area. Thank you so much for your thoughts and comments. So glad you enjoyed the video!

[@wildthunderbird]

I wonder if this is one of the babies you filmed earlier this year? It's nice to see he's able to take care of himself. He looks strong and healthy. Can you tell if it's a male or female? Those grasshoppers are HUGE. I remember my grandma telling the story about the dirty 30s. In the Great Depression she and grandpa lived in southern Saskatchewan and there were so many grasshoppers they ate all the crops, the grass, the trees, everything. They even ate the wooden handles off the shovels, the forks, the rakes. They moved up to northern Saskatchewan and she said it was so lush and green, the grass was as high as the horses bellies. It was a paradise compared to the dustbowl they left behind. Seeing the grasshoppers made me think of that story. Thank you for another beautiful video! Are the days a little bit cooler now? I appreciate all the wonderful videos you got this summer in the heat. Have a great weekend! 😊🦉😊🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗😊

[@ObservingFloridaWildlife]

I really liked watching this one. It's good to see something eating those Lubbers, but they are more colorful than most grasshoppers, so I've kept a few interesting shots of them. The only thing I've managed to catch owls eating so far is squirrel.

[@MichelleSiefkenPhotography]

Thanks Roger! I'd never seen them eating lubbers up close before either. I kept wondering when he would try to go after something like a squirrel, but maybe he saves that part of his hunt for after dark. I remember seeing photos of an owl eating a squirrel - I'm sure you got some great shots!

[@ObservingFloridaWildlife]

@@MichelleSiefkenPhotography It was a video when the mama owl brought at squirrel to the nest in the dead hollow tree. By the way, the top of that tree broke off a few weeks ago so not sure it will get used again.

[@MichelleSiefkenPhotography]

@@ObservingFloridaWildlife I thought I remembered seeing those pics from that nest. How sad that the top of the tree broke off. I wonder where mom and dad will go next to nest?

[@anneterry3660]

Incredible. I have videos of bats feasting on cicadas like the holiday turkey/goose/vegan selection. Other Nations: We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth. Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod,[New York: Ballantine Books (1971 (1928], 19-20)

[@MichelleSiefkenPhotography]

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! Thanks for watching!