Nope! There was a smelt run on the Lester River last night. I arrived at the mouth of the river with Lake Superior before sunrise. I took these images and video just as the sun kissed its way above the horizon. In addition to the cormorants and ring-billed gulls, there were quite a few mergansers. This was about 1/10 of the birds present. I didn’t stay long as I needed to head to the “owling grounds”.
Smelt Run on the Lester River (sorry about the highway noise in the video)
Are my Great Horned Owl family posts getting repetitive? Sorry (not really). By tonight the bad weather moves in again, and my birding opportunities will be curtailed. Duluth actually had 2.4 inches of snow on Sunday. However, yesterday and today have lots of sun, and I have made the most of my opportunity.
I arrived at the nesting tree about twenty minutes after sunrise (5:50 am). Even with knowing which tree would be most likely to have the owls, it still took me over 15 minutes to find the birds. It then took me another 20 minutes to find an angle which allowed me to take photographs through all the branches.
Much to my glee, shortly after I set up the Mom returned to the tree and posed for me in the only open gap available. It ‘s great to be good, but luck always helps!
Mom Great Horned Owl at Sunrise
Eventually Mom joined her twins on the same branch about ten feet below her on the White Pine. The trio was kind enough to pose for a family portrait. Actually, most of the time the owls just slept. At 7:30 the Mom flew off to hunt. Young owls of this size require the parents to hunt during early morning and evening, not just after dark. I could hear Dad being attacked by crows somewhere off in the distance. I am rather convinced the Dad pulls the crows away from the nesting tree of purpose. He is a good parent.
Great Horned Owl Family Portrait (minus Dad … the experience was a bit like taking family photographs of my family. It is really hard to get five young grandchildren to all look at the camera at the same time)
I made a trip over to the Great Horned Owl nesting site a bit before sunset yesterday evening. It was some super evening’s entertainment.
I found Twin #1 almost immediately
Finding Mom and Twin #2 was more difficult. The second owlet was hiding behind Mom, but it finally popped out to say hello. There was only ten minutes of light left when this opportunity suddenly presented myself (out of two hours on site). The crow may be seen much easier in the second of these two images.
And the crow was quite obvious 20 minutes earlier, but the Twin was hiding. If you maximize this photo and stare closely at the Mom’s head, you will be able to just barely see a bit of the owlet’s outline. Trust me, it’s there!