Where do I begin with today’s walk in the park? Right here, at the end of the walk, when I spotted this Great Horned Owl high up in a pine tree! I am freaking out about this sighting, as you can imagine! It went down like this: Coming out of Country Park and onto the road in Guilford Courthouse Park, I heard some mobbing crows near the obelisk, and they were LOUD. I looked up into the trees and found the mob. Not taking my eyes off the crows, I made my way over to the path going down to the main battlefield. There are several tall pines there that I’ve suspected are owl roosts. I kept watching the crows and then spotted a big dark lump way up in the trees. Yes! Zooming in with the camera revealed this fantastic Great Horned Owl looking straight at me. What a rush! This might confirm my suspicion that a pellet I found nearby was from a Great Horned Owl.
Great Horned Owls are fearsome predators, hunting prey from small insects up to Great Blue Herons (including Barred Owls and Red-tailed Hawks). Come to think of it, I’m not much bigger than a heron—gulp. Crows often mob these owls, so it isn’t surprising I was able to find this one by following their drawn-out caws. The owl really isn’t bothered by the crows, just inconvenienced, and will often either ignore them or move to a different location.
By the way, look at those talons. Wow!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Moe in Canada // Mar 26, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Great shot, Iris. You mention the talons and that’s one of the first things that caught my eye. I’ve never seen Great horned NOT grasp a branch with all ‘toes’. They release like this when they’re nervous and about ready to fly. If it didn’t fly for you, perhaps it was just a nervous reaction and you caught it just at the right moment. The other thing about the talons, these appear to be short and blunted. Talons aren’t short and blunted. They are lethal weapons and the main (if not only) means of obtaining prey. Incidentally, we normally have the grey phase (or morph) here in N. Sask. but we also get the darker morph.
Again, great photo.
2 Iris // Mar 26, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Thanks, Moe. Whenever I see owls, I remember your post to the BOAF list about when you were banding owls and how you had to be so careful because of their razor-sharp talons. This bird was several hundred feet away from me, high in a pine. I could only see it clearly through my camera zoom. It might have been sitting with loose feet because of the mobbing crows. There were several dozen very near to it and causing quite a commotion.
3 Birdfreak // Mar 27, 2007 at 5:57 pm
Sweet shot. I have seen only one Great Horned Owl before and it flew by me so fast it wasn’t much of a viewing.
Who needs a steak knife when you have rabbit slicers on your feet?
4 Iris // Mar 27, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Birdfreak, good analogy! Considering the size of some bones I found nearby, it’s clearly making good use of those rabbit slicers. This is a lifer for me. I’ve heard them before, but I have to see the bird for it to make my list.
5 PercyWalker.com // Apr 12, 2007 at 8:48 pm
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