The Owlery
The continuing story of a family of Great Horned Owls - by Dave Brooks
Book Nine
Book Nine follows the owls of 2021 as they grow and thrive in their home woods and fields.
The courtship season of late 2020 started strongly for our mated pair of Great Horned Owls. They were quite present with their vocal duets throughout November and December. It was unusually dry and warm in Sonoma County as autumn slipped into winter. The owls seemed quite at ease. I checked on their presence at the line of eucalyptus trees that has been their nesting site for at least the last four years.
They began roosting along the tree line by early January and I searched the trees to see where their nest might be. I could see no sign of a nest anywhere! But the owls continued their presence in the treeline as in years before. The big nest that they had used the past two years was gone, the eucalyptus trees grow swiftly at times and this one had shot up so much that the crotch in the main trunk where the nest had been was no longer the same and the stout nest had spilled to the ground. The other nest where I had first discovered the owls seemed to be nonexistent as well, although there was much foliage generally obscuring its location, the dynamics of the tree growth suggested that there might well be nothing there.
Both of these former nests were built by Red-tailed Hawks, I have detailed this in earlier books of The Owlery. The Great Horned Owls do not welcome the hawks at all but they will commandeer the hawk nests at will. I have observed the female Red-tailed Hawk scouting the treeline in hopes of building another nest there, but no new nests have been built, that I could see anyway. So I proceeded following the owls this year on the presumption that there was a very well concealed nest or the owls were making good use of a nest-like shelf of accumulated fallen leaves in a natural basket of branches in the very dense eucalyptus trees.
And so I followed after the mated pair of owls as they would roost in favored spots clustered around one of the larger trees in the middle of the tree line. I followed and waited patiently figuring that I might never get an indication of successful nesting until the young owls appeared as they branched out into their world of favored locations in the trees.
And then they appeared…
May 3rd, 2021, 7:22am- This young owl is about to practice the difficult art of landing…
…very well done indeed.
A few minutes later our young owl has company arriving at high speed.
This pair of Mallard ducks look like they are heading straight for our owl!
But they’re passing by well clear of the owl, my 500 mm telephoto lens created the appearance that the ducks were much closer to the owl than they were. They veered off below and to the right of the owl, heading through a gap in the trees.
The owl is alarmed and is flaring its wings in reaction to potential danger.
Kind of shakes a young owl up, having a close encounter like that. Mallards are fast flyers and they were pretty much heading right toward this owl and closing quickly. The owl recovered and after a few minutes decided to move over to a nearby tree.
The trunks of eucalyptus trees are very hard and very smooth, tough to get a grip on them…
…and so the struggle begins, climbing fiercely with talons and wings…
…not easy at all…
This series of images are 1/5th second apart and in continuous sequence. The owl has surged up the trunk a good hard-earned distance here.
And launches further up and behind…
…and then starts to lose it…
…and a mighty wing clench locks things in place…for a while at least. This struggle went on for quite a bit and the owl was ultimately victorious in gaining its new preferred perch.
May 8th, 7:03am. A sunny morning brings us to our two young owls resting comfortably and enjoying the warming rays of the rising sun.
May 16th, shortly after noon, our pair keeps a sharp lookout all around.
May 18th, 8:07am. The owls have moved over to the trees of the creek, enjoying the deep shade offered by the big oaks.
This is directly above a heavily travelled footpath. I don’t think many people ever look up and see these beautiful creatures. - If you don’t look, you won’t see. -
They are comfortable in their element and efficient in their development. I always enjoy seeing them grow and thrive.
Dave Brooks