Owls

We have a couple of barred owls living in our yard, in fact, in a nest in a tree that's visible from our bedroom window. They appear to be an adult and a younger one... the smaller one mostly sits around making whiny screeching sounds rather than the hooting sounds the larger one makes. The craziest thing about these owls is that they don't seem to understand that they're supposed to be nocturnal. They're out flying from tree to tree by about 6 pm every night, and sometimes earlier. They're also not too afraid of people. Yesterday the small one was sitting maybe 40' from the un-screened porch on a low tree limb, and actually stayed there long enough for me to run and get my camera AND go OUTSIDE and take some pictures of him. In the second one he looks shorter because he's sticking his head out toward me, just before flying off.