What a great gift on Easter! New life!

The first Great Horned Owlet appeared this afternoon. It was likely born about eight days ago … perhaps on my own birthday. The sun shone today; the winds were mild and the snows are melting fast in the Northwoods. In short it was a perfect day to make a first appearance in the world. (as a fyi … GHO owlets remain under their Mom for the first 8 to 10 days of their life). This makes the day even better. It is likely another owlet or two are still under Amy. Given the eggs are laid many days apart, the owlets are also born many days apart.

Owlet #1 (and Amy)!

The Easter Movie (video link for email subscribers)

Some more pics …

I know many of my readers are also “friends” with me on Facebook, or follow me on Instagram. To protect the owls, I am not posting to social media at this time. Should you discover the nest, I ask you to also not post to social media. Thanks.

As noted in the Great Horned Owl Snowmageddon posts, our unwinter ended big time. Apparently the snow totals for the storm were about 20 inches. While having a storm like this is not unusual for late March, the fact that for weeks prior there was not a single inch of white stuff on the ground was weird. I could tell many of my winter friends were around in the forest, but given the birds could forage on the forest floor throughout the winter, which is strange and unusual, feeder visits had been down in terms of numbers and species.

Our storm ended that situation, and Common Redpolls have invaded both my bird feeders and the public feeders I maintain at French River BIG time. At times it had not been uncommon over the past few days to have 300+ redpolls at all the feeders at once. I normally don’t post bird feeder images, but my Nyjer seed feeders … the redpoll’s favorites … shows the feeding frenzy after the storm.

Common Redpoll Feeding Frenzy

0Snowmageddon … Day #4 heralds the end of wind and snow showing the nasty side of Lake Superior. At my house, as of sunrise (cloudrise?) this morning, 17 inches of the white stuff had made its appearance. The “unwinter” ended in spring. Totals will be an inch or two more as winds have remained strong through the day resulting in snow squalls.

Les and Amy, my local Great Horned Owls, decidedly did not like Snowmageddon. Here are a few images taken since Day #1. I had to wait for brief letups in the snow. During heavy snow it was impossible to taken decent photos.

Amy: Day 3 Morning

Amy: Day 3 Afternoon

Amy: Day 4 Morning

Amy: Day 4 Afternoon (drying out!)

And Les, Poppa Owl (Day 4: Afternoon). He is back in his perch at the top of a white pine. During the storm he had to abandon this spot where he is able to be on guard duty … too windy.