World Bird Sanctuary: Tales From The Nest

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Tales From The Nest - Part 10

4/24 – Today is Easter Sunday and it’s been raining off and on for most of the day. No point in even trying for photos

4/25 – Today there is no activity in or around the nest—are they still there? I wlll try again tomorrow.

4/26 – It rained most of the night last night, but this morning there is a narrow window of opportunity with no rain. I hurry to make it to the nest before it starts to rain again.

When I arrive there is no activity at the nest or in the old pine tree. I begin scanning the nearby trees—the Sweetgum tree, being the closest to the Pine, is the most likely candidate. I scan the Sweetgum for several minutes and see nothing. Then I begin searching the other trees (which I think are too far away, but you never know). Nothing! I check the nest and Pine tree one more time, and just as I am ready to give up I see an upright silhouette on one of the branches of the Sweetgum.

I know that I’ve already scanned that entire tree—could I have missed it? Sure enough, there is one of the babies sitting about halfway up the tree. He’s behind a clump of leaves so photographing him is tough, but I am relieved to know that at least one of them has made it. I sit and photograph for a while, trying to get a clear photo whenever the wind blows the leaves to the side.

A car pulls up and two of the neighbors want to know if I’ve seen the babies. They tell me that the owls had stopped hooting for quite some time, but for the last couple of days they’ve been hearing them again. (Owls hoot when they are setting up territories and finding mates, but the female becomes silent once she is on the nest, and while babies are in the nest. This is a defense mechanism to keep predators from finding the nest.) The hooting resumes from both parents because they are still alerting other owls that this territory is taken. The babies hunger scream, and this helps the parents locate the kids. Mom and Dad will have their hands full feeding these two babies who can now wander rather than being confined to one tree.

I show the neighbors where the one baby is sitting, but even with someone pointing it out they have a difficult time spotting him. (Mother Nature’s camouflage is very good.)

The homeowner comes out to see what we are looking at, and tells us that the other day his wife heard a thump on their front door. Thinking that her husband had gone out to his car to get something and then couldn’t open the door because his arms were full, she opened the door and found one of the baby owls sitting on her doorstep. Baby Owls at this stage do not truly fly. They hop and glide for short distances. This one apparently missed his target branch and landed on her doorstep. When she opened the door he assumed a defensive posture. He stood up tall, spread out his wings to make himself look big and scary, and started clacking his beak. He then fly-hopped his way across the street to another neighbor’s yard and sat at the base of a tree pretending to be part of the tree trunk. The homeowners went into the house to get their camera and when they returned the owl was gone.

Hopefully this little guy will be able to hide out in the dense neighborhood shrubbery and bushes until he is able to fly well enough to get airborne and into the large old trees that abound in this area. Major threats to young owls at this stage will be the dogs, cats, coyotes and other owls that inhabit the area. Perhaps their greatest danger will be a vehicle collision if they wander onto one of the busy roads in the area.

For now one of the owls appears to be safely ensconced in the large old Sweetgum tree. Hopefully he will stay in the high branches until he is able to fly well enough to navigate the large trees in the neighborhood. Mom and Dad will continue to feed these babies (possibly most of the summer) until they are able to hunt for themselves.

I leave knowing that this will probably be my last sighting of the owl family of whom I’ve become so fond. Now that they are mobile and out of the nest any sightings will be strictly by happenstance.

I hope our readers have enjoyed this rare opportunity to follow the development of this little owl family.

If you've never seen a Great Horned Owl up close, please consider visiting the World Bird Sanctuary where you can see this and many other species of raptors up close and personal. The World Bird Sanctuary is open every day of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas. For more information about special events click here to go to our website.