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Monday, March 2, 2009

Video: Joe Connelly of Dallas’ Old Lake Highlands neighborhood talks about his owls

Joe Connelly talks about the owls who've been taking up temporary residence in his back yard for the past four years.

It may be a bit presumptuous to refer to Joe Connelly, who is actually a man of many parts, as "The Owl Man" of Old Lake Highlands. But he has been hosting a mating pair of screech owls in a nesting box at the top of a metal pole erected in his back yard for four seasons and counting, so there's some justification for the notion.

A neighbor of mine named Judy has recently retired from schoolteaching. She's a big animal lover (as in "big lover of animals," as opposed to "lover of big animals," such as elephants - though she probably has a fondness for them, too), and so spends much of her time walking around the 'hood with dogs on leashes. Sometimes they're her dogs, but just as often she gets talked into (if that's the proper characterization, given the fact that she loves it) taking care of neighbors' pets while they (the neighbors) are out of town.

Anne McFarland goes gaga over Maxine (we think)
Anne McFarland goes gaga over Maxine (we think)

It's through her regular walks along the Van Dyke & Waterview corridor that Judy made the acquaintance of Joe, who lives on Blanning. Somehow the topic of owls came up (maybe they were flying overhead?), and Joe let Judy in on his little backyard wildlife sanctuary secret. (Though he's doing nothing to hide it, and in fact is quite proud to show off his owl friends to whoever expresses an interest in them.) The male and female owls have been dubbed Max and Maxine (listen in on the video for advice on how to tell them apart), and they were - at the time of this interview - preparing to raise another brood of baby owlets. (Can I get an " AWWW!"?)

As you'll hear in our conversation, Joe's owls are not the only recurring seasonal residents of his back yard - there's also a duck house (atop a similar nearby stilt) that harbors a pair of wood ducks, who typically show up right after Max and Maxine have vacated the premises for the year.

Maxine takes a late-afternoon look around Joe's yard. Or maybe she's just enjoying the warmth from the setting sun.
Maxine takes a late-afternoon look around Joe's yard. Or maybe she's just enjoying the warmth from the setting sun.

The story of how the ducks first took up residence unfortunately was told off-camera, so I'll try to give you the gist of it here:

One fine spring morning, Joe heard a BANG! from the back of his house and had a sinking feeling that burglars might be trying to gain entry. When he discovered that the louvered bathroom window had been knocked open, he looked down under it and found a stone cold dead duck lying on the ground. Seems that the luckless duck and a rival male had been trysting for the affections of a comely female quacker, and this one got shunted into the bathroom window - at terminal velocity, you might say - while being chased away.

Joe can be frequently seen riding up and down the streets on his black ten-speed bicycle, and he's currently taking Photoshop courses at a local community center. When I called him up to arrange for our interview, we had to postpone it a day because of Joe's regular weekly 6 - 8 hour visit to the library. Which is all to make the point that Joe's a busy fellow, whose transient feathered residents are lucky to have him around.

Carry on, Joe!

Mike Bullock operated the camera on this shoot



  • Staff
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  • Anonymous

Travis Bush, says:

One of the coolest pieces on Peg News in a while! There is a lot of wildlife in Dallas and I hope it always stays that way.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Chris Kidd, says:

Thats the kind of stories PegNews needs to cover more often. Great little tale about owls in the city..

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9 months, 1 week ago
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CitizenKane, says:

Nice, very nice.

Thanks Mike and John for bringing us this story.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Nancy Nichols, says:

Best post ever on PegNew. I love owls.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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WhiteRockEagle, says:

I knew it!! I live about 2 blocks away from this man, and I saw one of these owls late at night a couple of months ago (pretty impressive wingspan, I might add). A few nights later, one was hooting and hunting in my back yard. A very eerie and compelling sound to hear late at night.

Just part of the fun of living close to the lake. Mystery solved. Nice story Pegasus, and thanks.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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John Meyer, says:

<p>Eagle, yr. welcome. Truth be told, my wife and I spotted a much larger owl late one night sitting on our back fence. It was definitely NOT a screech owl - more the size of a Great Horned. So consider that this might have been what you saw with the impressive wingspan.</p>

<p>Or, it might have been this guy:</p> <img src="http://media.pegasusnews.com/img/photos/2009/03/02/Mothman_sized.jpg">

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Travis Bush, says:

Lay off the sauce, John!

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9 months, 1 week ago
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John Meyer, says:

C'mon, Travis - it's almost h-hour, give a guy a break.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Travis Bush, says:

Actually John, if you keep doing these kinds of stories, I'll buy teh sauce!

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9 months, 1 week ago
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DGirl, says:

Beautiful story. Just the kind of news we need today and everyday.

Anonymous

9 months, 1 week ago
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WhiteRockEagle, says:

The bird I heard (with apologies to Dr. Seuss on his b-day today)made a peculiar cat-like sound before doing a segue into the standard hoot. Very odd. Didn't know we had such a melting pot for owls around here.

And the critter we saw flying was big, and not dissimilar to your artists rendering. Might explain the spike in "For Sale" signs.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Mike Bullock, says:

<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2WNrx2jq184&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2WNrx2jq184&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425"></object>

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Travis Bush, says:

Mike, dare you to start that around the office...

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Mike Bullock, says:

Hey Travis, Have you heard?

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9 months, 1 week ago
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Chris Kidd, says:

LOL..thank you guys for posting that. I needed that laugh because im sick today..

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9 months, 1 week ago
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David Gates, says:

I think Max is actually Stewie dressed in an owl costume.

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9 months, 1 week ago
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What do you think?

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