Great Horned Owlets… Fledglings Now
On Saturday, 04-24-21, I was back out sitting with the owlets. I wanted to find out if both owlets have fledged, since yesterday I saw only one of them fly. I figured either today or the next that both owlets would be flying.
First, I checked to see if I could find either Hoot, the female, or Give a Hoot, the male, around. I saw that Hoot wasn’t near the nest when I checked out the nest. A few hours earlier Hoot was perched next to the owlets.
When I didn’t find either adult I set up on the nest. Since I didn’t find the adults I knew it was going to be a long wait before the owlets became active.
The owlets got up to stretch and preen a few times, but most of the time they remained low in the nest sleeping until Hoot came in close to the nest at 1956 hrs.
I saw Hoot flying toward the nest and land about 20 yards away. I couldn’t see exactly where she landed because my view was blocked by some other trees. She started some squawks to let the owlets know she was around. This got them excited and they both woke up and immediately started branching. Both owlets have now fledged as I have seen both of them fly a couple short distances.
It appeared Hoot was only around for 10 minutes or so as I didn’t hear anymore squawks. I didn’t see her fly off because I was watching the owlets doing their new favorite things. When I left the area at 2030 hrs I checked to see if I could see Hoot, but I didn’t see her.
Once both owlets decided to perch close to each other I had to take off my 1.4x teleconverter to get them in the same frame for both photographs and video.
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