Junior Memorial Edition
"Junior," the Shadyside Owl
Hatched April, 1999
Died February, 2009
For more than thirty years there has been a family of Barred Owls in the grove of sycamore trees between Shadyside Lake and Killbuck Creek. For most of those years, we have enjoyed the sight of baby owls each summer and the parents carefully watching over them and bringing them food. These have not been the same owls for all these decades, but a dynasty of owls. This family has sent scores of young owls out into the surrounding parts of Madison County to start their own families. We know of several places where Barred Owls are established and we would like to believe that they are related.
This summer, for the first time in decades, there are no Barred Owls in the sycamore grove. "Junior," as we called him when he first fledged, was the last of his line to rule the grove. Perhaps, in time, another family of owls will come to call this place home, but for now the grove is quiet. There are no hoots to mark the twilight at each end of the night, no gentle eyes looking down on us from the treetops.
This edition of Birds of Madison County is dedicated to the memory of Junior and his family.
Junior and digital photography arrived at nearly the same time. This is our first picture of him, on the right, with his sister. It was taken July, 1999, when they had been out of the nest less than two months. For pictures of his first months, see A Prince is Hatched.
Junior matured quickly and, as we will see, was forced into the role of protector very early in his life. Here he is in May, 2000, just over a year old. Already he has heavy responsibilities as shown in The Young Prince Steps Up.
By the beginning of his second year, Junior was ready to assume his role as ruler of the grove. His nocturnal hooting had attracted a mate. When this picture was taken she had already hatched their first owl chick. See Long Live the King! for pictures of his first year as a father owl.
With the experience of raising his young siblings behind him, Junior was an excellent father. He was constantly attentive to his young and always seemed to know where they were. Here he keeps watch over his firstborn son in June, 2001. See First Family for pictures of him and his mate with their first youngster.
In their second year together, Junior and his mate had twins, a male and a female. They kept them well hidden and we rarely saw them together. This is the only picture of them together and was taken well after sunset. Observing the baby owls was going to become even more difficult as shown in Twins Times Three.
Having raised twins in each of three successive years, Junior and Penelope produced triplets in 2005. All three of the youngsters may be seen here with the two boys at the top and the lone female at the bottom. More pictures of these fine owls may be seen in Triplets.
The spring of 2006 again found Junior and Penelope very busy. Here she looks out the "window" of the hollow tree where she has her nest. She is probably going a little stir crazy because she has Triplets Again!
Things seemed to be going well for our family of Barred Owls in the spring of 2007. Junior, seen here in March, was his normal active self, bringing food to Penelope who was again on the nest incubating eggs. However, tragedy lies ahead. See Final Years for the sad end of our story.
Screen Savers
This month, Birds of Madison County brings you three high resolution pictures. Clicking on one of the images below will cause the corresponding high resolution image to be downloaded to your browser. You may save this image by dragging it to your desktop or using the "SAVE" command on the File menu. These images are large and may require a little time to download, depending on the speed of your Internet connect. The size of the picture in pixels and of the file in bytes is given for each picture.
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Junior's Last Spring
Having recently lost his mate, Junior seems pensive as he watches the sun set from the branches of a flowering buckeye tree.
2400 X 1600 pixels; 488K Bytes.
Junior on the Hunt
With newly hatched owlets to feed, Junior is busy night and day hunting for food to feed his family.
2400 X 1600 pixels; 836K Bytes.
Winter Roost
Each winter day, from November to March, Junior could be found roosting in the big sycamore tree, which also served as the nest for his family.
2400 X 1600 pixels; 752K Bytes.
Award Winning Web Site
We were honored to receive the East Central Indiana Audubon Society's Conservation Education Award for the work done through this web site. We thank the Audubon Society for this recognition and promise to continue our efforts to bring you interesting bird-related pictures.
We hope you enjoy the pictures. Your comments are welcome and may be sent to us at this address:
Tom and Jean Harbron
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