Great Horned Owls

 The great horned owl is a common resident of forest through out most of North America and parts of South America. They are considered an edge species. This means that they prefer to nest in the woods close to open fields where they can hunt. They are primarily crepuscular, which means that they are most active at dusk and down. Like many species of owls great horned owls do not make their own nest. They usually "borrow" a hawks, herons, ravens, or crows nest or nest in a tree cavity. Sometimes, as in this case they will use a man maid object such as a nesting box.

Great horned owls are usually one of the first nesting birds here in the north. They are non-migratory so they stay on territory all year round. In January the courting begins, even though it is often between a pair that has previously mated. Once a nesting site is chosen the female lays her eggs and incubates them for 4 to 5 weeks. During this time the male's job is to bring home the bacon. After the eggs hatch the female continues to stay on the nest to keep the chicks warm until they are old enough to thermal regulate. Then both parents need to hunt to keep the hungry chicks fed. Great horns eat almost anything that they can catch. Typically where I live they eat a lot of rabbit. This pair of owls has nested in a public park here in the Twin Cities for many years, although this is the first time in this box. They are very popular with photographers and as you can see from the photo above they were quite bored with their fame and stardom. At this time of year the parents are preparing to evict the youngster soon so that they can get back to the business of producing a new clutch of chicks for me to photograph next year. 

Happy B-Earthday



 For many of you who visit this blog today is a very special day. Earth Day began back in 1970 as a celebration of nature and the environmental movement.

Nature and environmental stewardship have always been central themes here at the Ecobirder blog but Earth Day also holds a special meaning. 

It was eight years ago today that the Ecobirder blog was born.

Here is a copy of the initial post.

Welcome to my new Ecobirder Blog

In honor of Earth Day 2007 I have started my first blog. The purpose of this blog will be to share my love of the environment, wildlife, and birding with others who share these interests.

 

The owl pictures above are the first photos that I posted to the blog on April 24, 2007. This nest had one chick and it was located at the Woodlake Nature Center.

 

I hope that you all enjoy this blast to the past.

 

I thank you for your support and hope that you continue to visit for a long time to come.

 

Happy B-Earthday 

Great Horned Owl

 The great horned owl is the top raptor predator where I live. These efficient hunters are considered a border species because they nest and live in a wooded area that is usually adjacent to an open area that is used for hunting. They eat a variety of prey including rabbits, squirrels, rodents, frogs, skunks, and birds. They are crepuscular which means most of their hunting occurs around dusk or dawn. Their large eyes have many rods which are cells that assist in seeing things in black and white. The rods help them to see in very low light. The facial disks, flat spots, on their face help to direct sound to their ears, which are on the side of their face underneath the feathers. The ears are at different heights allowing the owl to use asynchronous hearing to locate their prey by sound. This is especially helpful when the owl is hunting prey that is burrowing under the snow, which happens often here in Minnesota during the winter.

The great horned owl is one of the first bird species to nest each year. They are often on the nest beginning at the end of January. Great horns do not make a nest, they borrow a nest from another bird that has not yet returned from their winter migration. Typically they will use a nest from another large bird such as a hawk, heron or crows. They may also use a tree hollow or a squirrel's nest, if they are desperate. Clutch sizes vary from 1 to 4 eggs. The female incubates the eggs which take 4 to 5 weeks to hatch. The female continues to sit on the nest after the eggs hatch to keep the bald and helpless chicks warm. As the chicks grow and are able to keep themselves warm the female will join the male in hunting for the family laving the chicks alone. At around 5 weeks of age the chicks begin to get adventurous and start branching, climbing along the tree branches of the nesting tree. It is not unusual that a chick may fall out of the tree at this age. The parents will continue to watch over and feed the chick on the ground until the chick can climb back up into the tree. Unfortunately this is when people often find the chick on the ground. Often they will take the chick home, usually out of concern, but they are not a good substitute for the chicks real parent and during this developmental stage of the chicks life they can really mess them up. It is called human imprinting and it usually leads to an owl that can no longer survive on their own in the wild. SO what should you do if you find a chick? If the chick does not appear injured or in danger the best thing to do is leave it for its parents to care for. If it looks like the chick is hurt or in danger, especially from domestic cats or dogs, then you should take it to a facility that cares for injured raptors or birds.  

Great Horned Owl

The great horned owl is a large owl that is found in North, Central, and South America. It is the second largest owl in the Americas, with only the snowy owl weighing slightly more. Like most owls they are year round residents in their territory. Since they eat a wide variety of prey, including rodents and other small to medium sized mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and large insects. They frequently will take on prey that is two to three times there weight, including skunk which are also crepuscular, active at dusk and dawn. This has earned them the nickname, "Tiger of the sky". This name is often also used in reference to their larger Eurasian relative the Eurasian eagle owl.

Great Horned Owl Chicks

This is the time of the year when great horned owl chicks are starting to leave the nest. Some of the early hatches may be fledging but most are just starting the branching stage. Prior to fledging the young owls will climb around on the tree branches around the nest. This is called branching. At The Raptor Center we see a lot of baby owls at this time of year as some of the branching owls end up on the ground. The best thing for the owls is to go back to the nest, so after a quick examination to make sure they are not injured they are returned home. 

Great Horned Owl

The winters here in Minnesota can be pretty drastic. During the winter there are less thing for me to photograph. With no bugs around my photography turns almost exclusively to birds. Unfortunately there are also a lot less birds around, since there is much less for them to eat, however many of the birds that you can find in the winter are spectacular. Some of the cool birds take me a bit of travel if I want to see them but a few can be found all around the state.  

Great horned owls are resident here year long. Their down feathers protect them from the cold and they eat 

almost anything so it is very rare that they can not find prey. Staying around during the winter provides them with the advantage of nesting early. Here in Minnesota they are often on the nest by the end of January. This allows the young owls to have time to grow large enough to defend themselves before many of the other avian predators return to the area. It also helps in finding a nest. Great horned owls do not make their own nest so they have to borrow one, usually from a hawk, heron, or squirrel. Since most hawks and herons do not return that early in the year the owls often have a number of empty nests to chose from. The second photo is of a GHO chick branching. Before they can fly young GHO will climb around the branches of the tree where the nest is located. Sometimes they fall, but the parents will still feed and care for the chick on the ground. Unless a person comes by and finds them and takes them home. If they keep them for too long the owl will be imprinted and will not be able to be returned to the wild. So if you find a chick the best thing to do is to leave it be. If it looks injured or like it might be in danger from ground predators (coyotes, fox, raccoon  house cats) then take it to a rehab facility. Most facilities will give it any care it needs and then return it to the nest if possible, that is what they do at The Raptor Center.   

Fall Release

 

 This past Saturday was The Raptor Center's annual Fall Raptor Release. This event has been held at the beautiful Carpenter Nature Center, over looking the scenic St Croix River, for the past 5 years. Even with the cold and cloudy weather that we had we still had a good crowd. The highlight of the event is when we release rehabbed birds back into the wild. This year we released 6 birds. Two of the released birds were bald eagles. We only birds in the appropriate habitat and since the Carpenter Nature Center is right on the St Croix near to when it joins the Mississippi it is great habitat for eagles.  

My main job at the release was to take pictures. This was not so easy this year since the cloudy skies made the lighting difficult to work with. Fortunately we did have a bit of clearing as the day went which did give us a little light to work with. My other duty during the event was to help out at our raptor rings. We bring many of our education birds out to the release so that during the day people get get a good close look at a variety of different raptors. The ed raptors are divided into rings. This year we had 3 rings, one with bald eagles and our turkey vulture and 2 others that have a mix of hawks, falcons and owls. So while I was getting some nice close ups of our ed birds, like the one above of Samantha the great horned owl, I also answered questions about the raptors. It turned out to be another great event.

Tiger of the Sky

 

Here in North America the great horned owl is often referred to as the tiger of the sky. That is because they are a ferocious hunter know for taking larger prey. Often their prey is as large or larger then that of the bald eagle, even though the average eagle here in Minnesota can weigh 2 to 3 times more then the owl. Frequently their prey is larger then the owl, as is the case with the striped skunk which weigh an average of 2 or more times what the owl weighs. In comparison that would be like and average human attacking a female grizzly bear.  

Tuesday Tweets.

The great horned owl gets its name from the "horns" on the top of its head. These are not really horns and they are not ears either, as many people assume that they are. If you look closely at the picture above you can see that they are just feathers. What is their purpose? Great horns use them to communicate mood. It is also surmised that they help to break up the owl silhouette thus helping with their camouflage.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets. To join in the fun, just post a photo of a bird on your blog then come here and enter your information in the inlinkz tool down below. Don't forget to put a link back to here on your blog and the pretty little banner photo. Then visit all of the sites that participate to see a lot of cool bird pics.

Samantha

Samantha is a large female great horned owl in the education department at The Raptor Center. We are not sure how old that she is because when she was admitted in February of 1992 she was already an adult. She was hit by a car out near Deer River, MN and fractured the ulna and radius in her left wing. This permanently impaired her ability to fly so she could not be released back into the wild. Samantha graces the month of January in the 2012 Raptor Center Calendar. I took most of the pics in the calendar and put it together to help raise funds to care for the injured raptors at The Raptor Center. The calendar is available to order at The Raptor Center's online store.

T S Roberts Bird Sanctuary

This weekend I took a trip over to the T S Roberts Bird Sanctuary in south Minneapolis. The sanctuary is part of Lyndale Park and was officially designated as a bird sanctuary in 1936 by Christian Bossen, who was the superintendent of Minneapolis Parks at the time. In 1936 the park was originally called the Lyndale Park Bird Sanctuary but in 1947 the park was renamed after Thomas Sadler Roberts. Roberts was a retired physician who became a professor of Ornithology at the University of Minnesota. In 1932 Roberts published the book, "Birds of Minnesota" which was ground breaking at the time, and is still considered an important book for anyone birding in Minnesota.
The sanctuary was created primarily as habitat for migratory song birds, particularly warblers. There are trails and a boardwalk that run through a variety of different habitats, wetlands, fields, and forest, that can be used as a stop over for warblers as they migrate. Unfortunately the only warblers that I was lucky enough to see on this trip where yellow-rumped warblers and a single ovenbird. I have visited the sanctuary a couple of times in the past. While it once may have been a hot spot for migrating birds the creation of other larger parks nearby, Fort Snelling State Park, Hyland Park, Minnesota Valley NWR, and others may have decreased the number of birds that now use the sanctuary. However it is still great habitat for many of the birds that choose to nest in the area, such as sparrows, robins, and chickadee.
This years abundance of snow and rain has increased the size of the wetlands in the park. Several trails are still flooded over making detours necessary in some cases.
While the excess water may make it a bit more difficult for some visitors other visitors have taken full advantage of the new wetlands areas. Mallards and wood ducks can be found swimming in low land parts of the park that are usually dry.
The reason for my visit to the sanctuary though was the fact that there was a great horned owl pair that still had young that had not fledged. The other couple of nests that I had been watching had already fledged and were now difficult if not impossible to find. This pair of owls appeared to have nested a bit later then normal and so they still had young in the nest.
The nest was located in the back of the park very near to a trail. The location was very good for people who wanted to get a good look at the owls, or perhaps a photo or two, but it was probably not the best location for the owls. Many people know about the nest, particularly because of its location, and stop by to gawk. The owls do not seem to mind this invasion of privacy too much except for perhaps an occasional yawn of boredom for all of the strange humans below.
I don't think that the young ones will be in the nest for much longer though. They are already quite big. The squirrels nest that the parents confiscated, great horned owls do not make their own nests, is pretty small for the two big babies and mom. So soon it will be time for the young ones to leave the nest, and perhaps head off to college, or at least some nice mouse laden field around a college.

Hey, Hey, It's our B-Earthday!

Four years ago today I began this blog with a post that said:

Welcome to my new Ecobirder Blog

In honor of Earth Day 2007 I have started my first blog. The purpose of this blog will be to share my love of the environment, wildlife, and birding with others who share these interests.

A couple days later I posted my second post which included 3 pictures of a great horned owl nest that I was photographing at Wood Lake Nature Center. I had hoped to put these pics into my first post but I was very new to blogging and was still trying to figure things out. I wanted to start the blog on Earth Day, since the blog has a lot to do with the earth, nature and environment, so I decided to make an announcement post on Earth Day to start the blog and begin posting the pictures when I was ready.

I figured that for this B-Earthday we would invite a bunch of owls back to help us celebrate. I photographed this little eastern screech owl near Minnehaha Creek in south Minneapolis in December of 2009. I heard about the owl of the MOU list serve but it took me several trips before I finally found it out sunning on New Years Eve. I guess that proves what a nerd that I am, celebrating New Years Eve out freezing my butt off taking pics while everyone else is out getting ready to party.
2009 was a pretty good year for taking owls pics. While I was participating in the Redwing Christmas Bird Count in December of 2009 we decided to quit and head back up to the Twin Cities early. We had heard about a long-eared owl that had been spotted in a park in St Paul during the Bloomington count the week before so we decided to see if we could locate it. It took us a while but we did find the owl. Unfortunately dark comes early in December so the picture is not as good as I would have liked but you don't often get to be picky when it comes to owls.

In 2009 we took a side trip to Idaho during our Yellowstone vacation to participate in the first ever Snake River Birds of Prey Festival. Since we did not have much time, Yellowstone was calling, we only signed up for a field trip on borrowing owls. The field trip was great we had owls out in the field to photograph and even got to open up some man made burrows to check out burrowing owl chicks. Definitely one of the highlights of that year.

I have been fortunate over the years to be able to observe several great horned owl nests. A hawks nest that was taken over in Lakeville, MN has been the most productive for getting pics. Great horned owls have produced young in this nest in 2008,2009 and again this year. In 2009 they raised three young that began to branch, walking out on the branches before they can fly, in April.

So far 2011 has been a pretty good year for photographing owls also. Although I have had the opportunity to photograph northern saw-whet owls during the owl programs at Hawk Ridge over the years, I have not had the opportunity to photograph one that was not trapped for banding until this year. Back in February a saw-whet decided to perch, for a couple of days in someones back yard in Bloomington, MN. Fortunately the home owner was a birder and he got the word out about the owl in his back yard. A lot of people showed up over the next couple of days, myself included, to get some great photos

This year I made a couple of trips up to the Sax Zim Bog during the winter, as I do most every year. The first trip was for the first ever Brrrdathon that was held in January. As often happens in January in Minnesota the first day of the Brrrrdathon was complicated by a snow storm that dropped about six inches of snow in the area. Fortunately the next day, Saturday, the weather turned sunny and it was a great day to be about taking pictures of wildlife. Since I was spending one more night in a hotel in Duluth I stayed out in the bog until it got dark. I was rewarded when a pair of great grey owls began to hunt along the road at dusk. Since great grey owls are crepuscular, active at dusk and dawn, they can be tough to photograph.

In comparison northern hawk owls are diurnal so they are active during the day which makes them much easier to photograph. I saw northern hawk owls on both my trips up to the bog, as I have in most every year. I took this pic on my second trip at the beginning of March. This hawk owl seemed to be very used to people so it was not very nervous about my presence. As such I was able to get some really nice pics.

So another year of blogging has come to an end and a new one begins. This is the 1502 post that I have done in the four year. I have managed to post every day for most of the past three years. I really hope that you have enjoyed coming here and have taken something away from my pictures and writings. If I manage to make it another year I will have to do something really special for my 5th B-Earthday. I have updated the slide show on my side bar, the old one was getting a bit tattered and frayed, and I hope that you enjoy it. I hope to see you all here over the next year and invite you to join in the big party one year from today.

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