Live Ottercam

The Nature Center is home to a number of awesome raptors, including Buzz the turkey vulture, Xena the red-tailed hawk, and a lovely fellow called Artemis the barred owl—you may know him as Art.

Barred owls are often called hoot owls. Have you ever heard a voice calling in the woods at night, “Who cooks for you? Who—who cooks for you all?” That’s the hooting of a barred owl. And this fellow would definitely be a member of the “Clean Plate Club” if he ever had to sit down to dinner with his mother and promise to eat all the different menu items on his plate. Barred owls will prey on a wide variety of small mammals, from the tiny field mouse to the much larger and meatier opossum. They’ll also eat birds, like woodpeckers, snakes, lizards, bugs…some barred owls have even been seen wading into the water for a fish or frog or turtle.