Although I'm not sure what touched off this fascination with the owl, this was typical of her; she has loved nature since she was two or three. Perhaps she read something about Great Horned Owls, or maybe she saw a video at school or on television that peaked her interest. In any event, since she told me she wanted to see one, I've watched for opportunities to show her one.
I've seen them before, but to my experience, they are best spotted about half dark as they emerge from their roost and begin their nightly hunts. That means one must be out and about at dusk and be in the right place to hear or see them--not easy.
In October, 2013, I walked a trail that led along Silver Lake, on the north side of Highland where Autumn lives. I was with another birder, and we had spent the better part of the day looking for migrating warblers and whatever else we could find. In late afternoon we were heading back down the trail toward the parking lot when we heard the hooting of--you guessed it--a Great Horned Owl. It was followed shortly by another owl a bit farther away and with a higher voice--a female. They are easy to discern: females are larger than males, but since part of their bodies are dedicated to egg development, their voice boxes are smaller, and as a result their hoots are higher pitched.
Great Horned Owls mate in late fall or early winter, and I presumed this was a mated pair in the vicinity of their nest. I've seen half-grown owlets in a nest in mid-March. The timing of this breeding cycle means the young hatch around the time mammals emerge from hibernation, so food is more readily available. And the young have all spring, summer, and fall to learn hunting skills of their own, which they'll need to survive the next winter.
Once back home I checked the area where we heard the owls on Google Maps. It was the largest block of mature forest around the lake. So I presumed that this wooded spot must be near their nest location. It was a good place to take Autumn. But in order to allow her to see one, I'd need better intelligence--I had no idea where the nest was, and since I hadn't seen an owl there, it wouldn't be easy to show her one.
I returned to the spot along the trail where we heard the owls in February 2014. I arrived about fifteen minutes before sundown, and stayed until it was too dark to see. With owlets in the nest, the parents should be active hunting for food, but I heard and saw nothing. Perhaps the parents left to hunt elsewhere before I arrived. I wasn't sure, and it didn't look promising.
A week ago, 28 Feb 14, I played disc golf with my sixteen-year old grandson Zander, Autumn's brother, at Silver Lake Park. The course is between a quarter and half a mile of the spot where I heard the owls, but I wasn't thinking of them on this day. We played twenty-seven "holes," and toward the end, as we were retrieving our discs from a basket, we heard a Great Horned Owl. We silently gazed in the direction the sound came from, but saw nothing.
I made a note of the time; it was 4:15 in the afternoon. This was early for one to be hooting. The sky was overcast, and Barred Owls are known to hoot in the middle of days with cloud cover, and I wondered whether Great Horned were a bit like that, too.
The road leading to the park entrance passed the general location where Zander and I heard the owl, and we stopped there to watch and listen. Zander said, "There he is," and pointed to the top of a tree. It appeared as a dark blob but was shaped like the tail of an owl protruding from behind a branch. Pulling forward a bit allowed the rest of him to come into view, and he turned his head and looked at us. Bingo!
I took Zander home, and if Autumn and her mom, Molly, had been there, I would have taken them right back to see the owl if they were able to get away. But they weren't home. I coordinated with Molly over the next few days, and we agreed to see if we could find the owl the following weekend. And in the meantime, Molly and Autumn stopped at the park, and spotted the owl, but it was very high in a tree, and they didn't have binoculars.
Last night I picked them up, and we headed to the park. We parked along the road offering a view of the owl area. We arrived a little after 4:00 p.m. and sat in the car talking quietly and listening for fifteen or twenty minutes. Then we heard a hoot. And then another. For the next 15 minutes we heard hoots about every minute or so but couldn't find the owl. The car windows were open, and Molly thought it sounded as though it was coming from her side of the vehicle, while I heard it more from my window. On a whim, I examined the top of the tree in which Zander had spotted the owl with my binoculars, and there, on the same exact branch, sat the Great Horned Owl! It was almost directly ahead of us. I guided Molly and Autumn, both using binoculars, to the tree, and to the branch way at the top on which the owl was perched. Molly found him first, and Autumn did so a minute or so later.
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| The owl is in this photo, about dead center |
We slowly drove a bit closer, and we all had a good look. Autumn was holding her binoculars upside down, and I said, "That will make the owl appear upside down." She responded, "No, it won't." She's on to me.
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| A cropped version. Binoculars helped! |
We watched him for another twenty or so minutes after which I took them out for pizza. As our waitress approached our table to check on us, I asked her if she has ever seen a Great Horned Owl. She responded that she has not. I pointed to Autumn and said, "She saw one half an hour ago." Autumn beamed.
