Hoot and her Two Owlets 04-04-21

 On Sunday, 04-04-21, I spent a little over 3 hours from 1630 to 1945 hrs watching Hoot, the female Great Horned Owl, and her two owlets. The last time I sat out with her was on 03-3-21. The the owlets keep getting bigger and bigger.

Hoot was sitting/standing facing away from me when I got to the nest. I could see one of the owlets on her right side, but the other one was more in front of her so I could only catch a glimpse of it every once in a while until Hoot left the nest at 1916 hrs.

It was a warm day on the nest with the temperatures in the mid 70’s, so the owls were doing some gular fluttering to stay cool.

It was a quiet time on the nest. It didn’t appear that Hoot fed the owlets before flying off the nest this time. The last three times i sat out she spent a half hour each time feeding the owlets.

The only excitement was while I was sitting out photographing was when two Mallard ducks come crashing through the woods and went to the ground. The male was no more than 10 yards from me when it took off directly toward me flying only a couple feet, if that, above me and my camera and tripod. I actually thought it was going to take out my camera. The female kept walking around about 20 yards from me while Hoot kept an eye on it.

Here are some of the images from Sunday…