Due to a minor medical procedure which involved getting some stitches, and not wanting to have the sutures pull out I skipped yesterday’s bicycle ride. The net effect was I had an extra few hours in the day … the joys of being retired! I decided I should spend quality time with Hoot, and thankfully she agreed.

Throughout the day I hiked over to my owling grounds, where two of the juvenile Great Horned Owls had been hanging out. Extensive off trail hiking and research a few days earlier had discovered lots of whitewash under certain trees (no owls on those hikes). When I checked those same trees yesterday morning and afternoon, jackpot!

Hoot on the Hunt at Sunrise (I dare you to walk under her tree)

Sleepy Time for Tired Owls

Hoot’s Brother Deep in a Pine Grove in the Late Afternoon

Crows! (The Great Horned Owl never got discovered! I think the crows were attacking one of the other siblings. You will also hear a lot of nuthatches in the videos. They knew where Hoot was perched! (email subscribers: video link 1 | video link 2).

I just took this photo about 30 minutes ago!

Last night my Great Horned Owl family hunted in my yard around 2:15 am. There is a large dead tree near my bedroom which they were using as a perch. I decided this morning it was time this morning to find the daytime roost. Success!

One of the owl’s common daytime roost’s is about 2/3 of a mile hike from my yard. Back on February 8th I first started watching my Great Horned Owl family when the Mom first sat on the nest and laid her first egg (thus … over six months ago). I had been listening to the parents romancing each other with “after dark hoots” since late November of last year.

Beware tunnel vision when birding. I watched Hoot for over five minutes before I realized another owl was watching me! Thankfully, I had been motionless and had not spooked my friends.

• While approaching an owl, if you are off trail and in deep forest, look at the ground. My owls put up with my presence “unless” I am a clod and step on a branch. Loud noises of a stick breaking are hated.
• Take your time. This morning, once I saw two of my owls, I spent close to 10 minutes just to move 30 yards.
• Take some images and slowly exit the scene. My owls now seem to trust that I am not a threat. I leave them and almost never flush the owls by accident.
• Get to know your local crows, blue jays, robins, nuthatches, chickadees, etc. All of these birds have different alarm calls, and will lead you right to the owls. I am often within 50 yards of my owl family in deep thickets of pines … without the help of other birds on many days I would never find them.

Crow!