Hoot’s Family (Great Horned Owls)

 Hoot’s Family (Great Horned Owls)

Hoot, Give a Hoot and their Two Owlets…

Early this morning, Wednesday, 04-07-21, I went out to check on Hoot, the female Great Horned Owl, and her two owlets after last nights storms and before the next round of thunderstorms.

As I was approaching the nest I heard a crow or two making some noise in the distance. They weren’t going at it like they normally do, but something was going on.

When I got to the nest I saw the two owlets on the nest with wet heads from the recent rains. I looked to see if Hoot was hiding in the tree above the nest, but I didn’t see her. I knew Hoot had to be close and that was probably reason the crows were making the noise.

I took some photos of the owlets and decided to see if I could find Hoot. Maybe I could get a picture of her off the nest. It has been a while since I was able to photograph her in a mostly vertical position not on the nest.

Quickly, I found Give a Hoot, the male, all by himself maybe 20 yards past the nest, but the crows were still making a racket further away. They must be harassing Hoot.

There were enough branches blocking my view to photograph Give a Hoot that I decided to walk up pretty close to him. He will usually fly off before I’m this close to him, so I figured he wasn’t going anywhere now.

When I was done photographing Give a Hoot, I decided to see what the crows were all excited about. I walked close to the edge of a fairly large marsh area that was between me and the crows. Now I wished I hadn’t left my binoculars with my backpack back close to the nest.  I looked for Hoot, but I couldn’t see her. I could see the crows so I looked through the viewfinder and saw the direction they were looking. With the help of my viewfinder I located Hoot.

While I was photographing Hoot, Give a Hoot flew to a branch directly above me. Just as he landed I was able to get a shot of him looking out toward Hoot’s direction. I’m using a 500mm f/4 lens with a 1.4x teleconverter and if I remember correctly my focus distance is 12 feet. Give a Hoot seemed to be about that distance above me. My next shot of Give a Hoot he was looking down at me. I was only able to get half his body in the frame for the shot.

I decided to leave after getting my photographs so I walked back to my backpack and put my camera away.

While walking out I saw that both Hoot and Give a Hoot had moved closer to the nest and now were perched about 15 yards from one another. I took my camera/lens back out of my backpack and grabbed a couple more shots of each before continuing on my way.  

What an exciting day in the woods…

Owlets

Give a Hoot, male

Give a Hoot, male

Give a Hoot, male

Give a Hoot, male

Hoot, the female

Hoot, the female

Give a Hoot, male

Give a Hoot, male

Give a Hoot, male

Hoot, female