In the days since a plucky little owl roosted in Christene Cardoso’s holiday wreath, her social media post about the experience is still spreading far and wide with more than 30,000 shares on Facebook at last check.
Strangers from across Canada and around the world are messaging her with owl stories, cracking Harry Potter jokes and generally sharing in the wonder. “My phone doesn’t stop going off,” Cardoso says. “People keep sharing it. This is spreading joy.”
The owl visit, and the attention it generated, were both very unexpected. “It was a beautiful thing that happened,” says the Southwest Oakville resident. “It was something my kids will talk about for the rest of their lives.”
It was a lazy Sunday morning like any other January 31 as her family was finishing up from breakfast and getting ready to go sledding. Just before 10 a.m., Cardoso was preparing some items she had sold online for a porch pickup. As she swung the front door open, a tuft of brown swept across her peripheral vision. “My first thought was maybe it was a squirrel and it was going to jump on my face.” She let out a scream which drew her husband Nelson to the door to investigate.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” Nelson recalls. “I thought maybe she found a dead animal on the porch.”
Fright turned to delight as together they realized they were looking at a stunned and sleepy owl in their foyer.
“I thought it would have flown away after she screamed, but it was just sitting there,” Nelson says. “We were telling the kids, ‘Come see the owl!’” The children, ages five, nine, and 11, all gathered around blinking at the owl that was blinking back at them. After snapping some photos and gazing at arm's length, the family gently closed the door with the owl still sitting in the wreath.
Some quick Internet research revealed their guest was an Eastern Screech Owl, who had probably spent the night hunting and was now needing to sleep. A washroom window allowed the family to peer discreetly at their visitor as it napped. Cardoso messaged new pick up instructions to the people coming for their Facebook Marketplace items: “Just so you know I have an owl in my wreath. Please don’t disturb it.”
The family committed to avoid the front door for the remainder of the day, even though their deck is being replaced, so using the back door requires everyone to leap or climb about two feet to get to the ground. Nelson hopped outside with a proper camera to get some photos of the front door from a respectful distance.
“Of course we did nothing but watch this owl all day,” Cardoso says. In the late afternoon, they heard a rustling at the door, and saw the owl had awoken and flown over to sit on the roof, then to one of their deck chairs. An hour later, as dusk fell, the owl flew off.
According to wildlife biologist Brian Ratcliff, Oakville’s many ravines and woodlots are prime habitat which probably support a relatively healthy population of Eastern Screech Owls. The suburban environment tends also to be rich in backyard bird feeders that can be attractive to owls, though not for the birdseed.
“At night, the mice come out,” Ratcliff says. “So owls come to bird feeders to hunt the small mammals who are active at the feeder at night.” Because of the owl's nocturnal habits, screech owls are rarely seen, though their shrill call will probably be echoing up and down the trails of Oakville come April.
“During the day, they’re trying to keep a low profile,” Ratcliff says. "They usually roost in a cavity or against a trunk of a tree, so they’ll blend in quite well with the bark of the tree.” While it’s unusual for an owl to roost in a wreath, it’s not unheard of, as wreaths may look just like a tree cavity to a sleepy bird with a full belly.
“They do end up in weird places,” Ratcliff says. “They’ll sometimes roost in mailboxes if people leave the door open.”
Based in Thunder Bay, Ratcliff occasionally visits Oakville to see a relative and do some birding. He has done research on owls and worked for a time at the Owl Foundation in Vineland, ON.
“We would get reports of screech owls coming down chimneys because chimneys are basically like a hole,” Ratcliff says. “They get in there and they end up coming right down into the fire pit of the house if the damper is open. People have had screech owls coming into their house, covered in soot, flying around the house.” There’s a reason wildlife experts recommend homeowners cover their chimney stacks with wire mesh.
As for why the owl didn’t fly off in the initial commotion of being discovered, Ratcliff says screech owls tend to freeze when startled, hoping they haven’t been seen. During the day, “they’ll sit tight until the last moment.” From the sounds of it, the Cardoso family gave the owl enough space so it felt comfortable to stay put.
“I think it’s very lucky,” Ratcliff says.
The Cardosos are now installing an owl house in the yard hoping to entice their visitor to stay. Though they have yet to see the owl again, Cardoso still finds herself opening her front door a little gingerly, just in case.