The winter that will not end could have been a title for this post. Thankfully Molly and I missed most of the snow melt with our trip to Tucson. When we left and drove south Molly had to listen to my constant complaints that I was going to miss seeing my owls at their youngest age. I even talked about flying back from Tucson for a couple day visit to see the youngsters. Was I ever wrong. This morning during my birding hike, Mom Great Horned Owl was being bumped around, but the owlets were still warmly ensconced underneath her. One year ago exactly from today, last year’s family of owlets were already branching and even beginning to think about flight.

Last year on April 22nd …

I had speculated that the extremely cold winter might have slowed down the nesting process for my owls. Last year the owls nested on February 8th; this year I found the nest on March 11th (the owls may have nested earlier). Yesterday evening’s photograph was taken essentially two weeks AFTER the same date that the owlets were branching last year.

This year on April 21st … (white fuzz / fluff viewable just in front of Mom)

Here is the U.S. Weather Service data for this year. Given the cold weather, I suspect Mom owl needed to use much of her energy for just staying warm, and not egg production. In addition to the 20 inches of snow we’ve had in April this year, here is the temperature data for this winter … the delta averages are HUGE! (vs 30 year average)

• January: 6.5 degrees below normal
• February: 9.5 degrees below normal
• March: 2.9 degrees below normal
• April: 5 degrees below normal through April 20th

Finally, here are two final pics of “southern Mama”. She left her nest in the Tucson area 2.5 weeks ago to help her mate hunt for food to feed hungry owlets. Notice how the southern desert owl is almost gray in color, while northern mom is much more brown. It appears both birds have evolved to better fit in with their habitat (camouflage).