Field Stories

A Great Horned Owl Story

I have a new image of this particular owl family that I’ll be showing this summer. I found the nest last year when the chicks had reached the stage where their mother spent no time with them so I couldn’t get the shot I wanted. Fortunately, Great Horned Owls often return to the same nesting site which gave me another opportunity. Great Horned Owls don’t construct or maintain their own nest. This one appeared to be an abandoned red tailed hawk nest in a large pine tree. My blind was about twenty yards from it in another tree. It amazed me, in watching the nest, that sometimes the mother would move no more than an occasional eye blink in a three hour period. Despite their imposing presence, these owls face terrible odds against survival in their first year. First they deal with weather. Incubation may begin as early as late January. Then there is the deterioration of the old nests they use. For this and other reasons the babies may find themselves out of the nest before they can fly. If they survive the fall the parents will find and continue to feed them. However, then they encounter the danger of predators when the adults aren’t present. Where they happen to land also impacts their chance of survival. Those on the ground have a much higher percentage of risk than those in branches. About four days after I captured my last images in March this family’s nest fell apart. These chicks were too young to fly. After spending so much time with them you feel personally involved in their success and to find their nest gone makes your heart sink. Then I spotted one of the two chicks on a limb half way up the tree. Sadly though, there was no sign of the other and I resigned myself to its fate. Two weeks later, in a visit to the site, I was greatly relieved to find both sitting on a limb together. So far they had beaten the odds. Since April I continue to hear their begging for food calls.