Great Horned Owl

Not a very good picture. I love my digital camera but hard to tell what your taking a picture of if it's too dark or too light outside. I know it's nesting around here , or getting ready to, but haven't found the tree yet.

Wow! Keep the kitties inside!

Wow, thats great! I have heard owls calling at night but I've never seen one.

Wow! Talk about an awesome bird!

Pelle, same here - and I love hearing them, but have yet to spot one "in the flesh."

That's great! How did you ever get close enough to get such a great picture?

Awesoom bird Betterbloom. I have one that visits my place. Is there a way to tell what there nest might look like? I have so many nests in my trees and they way too far up for me to see. Some have birds and some have squirrels.

My two cats do stay inside now, after being chased by this owl twice. It is funny because I've played owl sounds on my laptop, and my cat runs to the window to see where it is. She has no idea, this is not a bird you want to mess with.

You probably won't be able to tell until the babies get bigger. You will see them climbing around in the tree before they fly away. One of the bigger owls, mom or dad is always close by. When they are babies they chatter making a clicking noise. They most always nest in the same tree year after year. Ours has been for about 6 years, but the tree had to be cut partially down due to it breaking in the wind. Now I'm not sure where they will nest.

Oh my gosh. What a magical sighting you've captured in your camera. Absolute magic.

It is very unusual to see an owl in the light. I have seen them a few times over the years, once was a barn owl with it's young on the road, I think picking up remnants of a run over vird.

The other was a very white looking barn owl flying along a railway bank when it was covered in snow. I have seen one flying along a road side probably at dusk. It's seems like a priveledge to see one.

There is usually one around where I live in the autumn, I have only heard it so far. A lot of trees they nest in are disappearing. It must be great to have one on your doorstep, if it needs a new home it seems you can make it a nesting box to attach to a tree.

http://www.barnowl.co.uk/

Wallaby, my doorstep is a park! I live in a county park about 40 acres big, with lots of trees. It's outside of the city so it attacks many birds. I'll have to ask about the nesting box, I don't think they would mind, but there are trees just about every ten feet around here so I'm sure it will find somewhere to nest. Sometimes you can see them here early in the morning.

Great Horned Owl we saw last January when we were at the Suncoast Seabird Santuary in FL.

Beautiful pic Marilyn. I can't wait to spot my first owl.

Good picture, looks like you had him backed into a corner there.

There is a pair of Great Horned Owls in this neighborhood. My trees are all too small. for them to nest in. . I hear them hooting quite often and have seen them but never got a picture. They are huge and I watch my little dog very closely when she is outside after dark.

Donna

Geez, the owls almost got one of my cats right in front of me and it was still daylight. Be careful, you can't hear the owl coming.

I dreamt of this Great Horned Owl last night!! LOL!!
~Amy :)

Amy, what a hoot! I hope it didn't carry you off to it's nest!

betterbloom, living in a county park must be great, shame about the heat!

Great shot of the owl, Betterbloom. I miss the pair we we so accustomed to seeing when we lived in town. They would hoo-hoo back and forth to each other at dusk, then swoop down over the roof of our house. And, as you mentioned, silently! Not a sound. They had babies in our neighbors backyard one year (lots of tall loblolly pines) and the babies fell from the nest after a strong wind. It's hard to call them babies when they are the size of a small hen! Experts advised them to build a wire cage around them to protect them from dogs/cats and put a 2x4 across the top for the adults to stand on while they drop food to the babies. That was the most bizarre site - the adults didn't fly in as expected, but "walked" across the yard then jumped up on the 2x4 and dropped dead mice, etc. to them. When they felt threatened, the babies would expose huge talons and make a fierce clicking sound as you described. Those beaks could bite off a finger in a snap! I would not want to mess with them.

They obviously favored a large oak behind us for eating because there were always little piles of bones and fur at the base of the tree where they had regurgitated. I called it the "killing tree" because of all the bones!

Hope you get to see babies this year.

Debra

Great story, Debra, both about the love of the owl parents for their babies, and also for the goodness of the humans to create such a spot for them - thanks for sharing!

They are fascinating and must admit I'm jealous of Betterbloom! I'll never forget the first time the neighbors called us over to see the babies. It was Easter Sunday. The babies had these huge yellow eyes and looked like koala bears because they were fuzzy. When looking at them through binoculars, they would be looking right bacy at you! They seemed just as curious abut us as we were of them!

Betterbloom, any luck locating a nest? Too bad their favored tree had to be altered.

Debra

fleursdefouquet: I haven't had time to drive around in my golfcart looking for it. Been working 3-11 pm. Hopefully they can replace me real soon, or I quit. Tomorrow I'm off so I can go looking around and get some pictures. The tree they usually nest in hasn't been cut down all the way, just half of it. It's possible they still might nest there.