On Saturday, 04-10-21, I went out to spend some time with the Great Horned Owls.
My plan was to check on Hoot, the female, and her owlets first, then go find Give a Hoot, the male, to take some video.
I checked on the owlets on the nest at 1650 hrs and saw that Hoot was already gone from her perch over looking them.
I heard some crows a short distance away so they were either mobbing Hoot or Give a Hoot. Once I got over there I saw that it was Give a Hoot being mobbed by over 15 crows. They chased him to three different perches before I lost sight of him. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t going to be in any mood for any photo shoot.
For the next half hour I checked around for Hoot, but I didn’t find her so I went back to the nest to set up my camera and tripod. It was about 1745 hrs by the time I was set up and ready to go. Hoot will come back to check on the owlets, but when I just didn’t know.
The first 1 1/2 hours sitting with the owlets was pretty slow. They were either just looking at me or most of the time they were sleeping with some yawning.
Hoot came back close to the nest around 1915 hrs. She let the owlets know she was around by doing some squawks which got their attention. They started doing some begging calls back and they became very active on the nest…walking around the nest and flapping their wings, etc. Hoot eventually flew away from the nest area after 20 minutes or so. I spent a little over 3 hours with the owls and left the area at 2000 hrs. I found watching the owlets behavior very interesting especially after Hoot came back and began doing some squawk calls.
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