Community Corner
Owls Make Homes (and Noise) in Albany
Barn owls, including loquacious owlets, have taken up summer residence in two neighborhood trees, no doubt a disquieting development for resident rodents.
Residents in the higher elevations of Kensington and El Cerrito are used to seeing eye to eye with a number of magnificent hunting birds. Red-tailed hawks and even an occasional falcon are not unusual, but over the last few weeks a new predator has taken center stage in the flatland.
A pair of barn owls have returned to palm trees on Sana Fe Avenue near the Kensington-Albany border, their home for the last seven or eight years, and are again raising a family.
Actually this year there are two families, according to Julie Moore, who takes neighbors and friends on nightly tours.
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Both pairs can been seen most nights around sunset swooping out of the large palms, looking for food. Don’t expect any hoots, their call is more of a screech, but you can’t miss them, since they're the only sizable creatures in the air just after sunset.
The parents emit a loud screech, while the babies, still in the nest, are still practicing and sound more like a loud wind-up toy.