Evansville native Susan Tromley first shared her passion for bird watching in the March/April 2021 issue of Evansville Living. But her story didn’t stop when the pages of the magazine turned. Since her print debut, Tromley has found a new family of owls and continues to share her observations to a growing number of fans on Facebook.
On April 11, she was called by a homeowner in her neighborhood who had a young owlet in their yard. The owlet was too small to be relocated and stayed grounded in a holly bush for several days.
Tromley continued to visit the owlet and eventually met both its mother and father, who watched anxiously from the trees above. On April 16, the male and female owls were officially named Franklin and Elanor Roosevelt by the homeowner.
While she can’t be sure if it’s the same owlet who hid in the holly bush, Tromley located an owlet, now named Theodore, with the Roosevelts on April 25 after a brief hiatus from the family. The animal enthusiast has kept up with the trio ever since, even catching Eleanor feeding Theodore on May 5 — an act female owls had never before performed in front of her.
Tromley’s updates on the owls often reflect posts she made while tracking her first two families, specifically one in Vann Park. The posts’ popularity comes from Tromley’s personal details. She gets to know each owl — Franklin is shy, Eleanor is confident — and shares their unique quirks and personalities to her audience.
Read more about her owl watching background here.
