The title of this post says it all … in January. Granted I am south down in the Plymouth, Minnesota area visiting my daughter’s family, but this is the UnWinter. There is zero snow on the ground but finding a Great Horned Owl already incubating eggs on January 28th is exceedingly weird. Our winter up north in Duluth is also extremely mild, but at least there is a few inches of snow on the ground. I had already started taking local “owl hikes” at night as I am convinced if the weather continues with this warm pattern, owls will nest much earlier this year. Last year my own local owls were not on the nest till early April.
Actually, with my tunnel vision focused on the owl, it took several minutes for me to realize this wild turkey was standing only 15 yards away from me. The image shows the total lack of snow.
I saw one by my backyard. It is huge. He killed the pigeon that made a nest but the backdoor. Killed couple of the chipmunks. I hear rabbits screaming at night time. It must be him. But, it is a beautiful. I googled that they don’t live here in Illinois. Why is he here? I asked many times, now seeing your post, I understand. My daughter said she had seen him around when they are swimming. So, I guess it has been here for a while. Thanks for the info.
Great Horned Owls are extremely wide-spread across North America. As long as there are some “cover trees” for the birds, they are in almost every state. They just don’t like totally open habitat.
So interesting…
Great shots as always.
In the Twin Cities area this is about average when they nest. As a rule, last week of January, first week of February. Saw one sitting on a nest yesterday. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
hope they will be ok. the sun just came out near the lake and there was a lot of grass now visible