On Saturday, 04-17-21, my plan was to go out and find Give a Hoot, the male Great Horned Owl, since it was most likely too early for Hoot to be off the nest. I didn’t walk to the nest, but glassed the nest from a distance and saw the owlets. Hoot didn’t seem to be near the nests so I figured she was off hunting with Give a Hoot.
I kept looking for Hoot and Give a Hoot while walking to the area where I can usually find either owl, but I didn’t find them. It was about 1745 hrs so it was possible Give a Hoot hadn’t showed up yet, so I sat and waited for 40 minutes. Nothing…
Next I decided to check out Hoot’s old stomping grounds, but I didn’t see either owl there either. Although, I didn’t expect her to be in the cedar tree that I found Give a Hoot in a few days ago I saw some recent white wash and a dead squirrel under the tree.
Then I got side tracked checking out the raccoon in a tree cavity. I saw movement, but it wouldn’t stick its head out for a photograph. Then it was time to watch the deer. There were a total of nine of them, so I watched them for several minutes.
I walked back to the nest area keeping my eye out for both adults. Still nothing…
When I got close to the nest after 2000 hrs I could hear at least one of the owlets giving some begging calls. I walked to the nest and found one of them had started branching. This was the first time I’ve seen it off the nest. I took a couple shots to document it, but the lighting was very poor. My ISO was at 20,000.
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