Eastern Screech-owl - Beaches area of Toronto - sister-in-law of Jamie Brockley

Eastern Screech-owl – Beaches area of Toronto – photo by Tanya Payne – Nykolation

I thought this was a neat photo. My sister-in-law  in the Beaches in Toronto found this Eastern Screech-owl when she came home from work on March 7. It was sitting on the porch in her urns.

Jamie Brockley

Note from Tim Dyson:  “What a nice photo of a classic “brown morph”. You don`t usually see such good pics of brown morphs, and there are still many who do not recognise such a colour variation – simply stating that “all that are not true red morphs, are just duller gray morphs.” I have never agreed with this idea, and have handled a fair number of screech owls in decades past, especially when I used to band a lot of owls in the `80s and `90s. I even asked Kay McKeever of The Owl Foundation in Vineland years ago, (since she has likely handled more screech owls than anyone in the country), and she agreed that yes, indeed there ARE “brown” morphs in the population, and a good many of them, too. We discussed the differences from true browns and simply duller gray owls, in detail, and I figured that if she agreed, then that was good enough verification of this fact for me.”


Drew Monkman

I am a retired teacher, naturalist and writer with a love for all aspects of the natural world, especially as they relate to seasonal change.