I figure I’ve taken over 25 Hoot Hikes this winter! Some folks might say I am bird brained! After all, who will take a HUGE number of hikes at night … particularly over the past two weeks when the temperature during my night time walks was never warmer than -10F. I was following Hoots! (and triangulating the sound)
.
Great Horned Owls nest about this time of year, and for the last three years a family of Great Horned Owls have lived near my home at the northern edge of Duluth. Last year, my happy couple nested on February 8th. With the extremely cold weather which has been reaching around -20F to -25F every night for the past 12 days, I think my local owls delayed their housewarming (nestwarming?) a touch. They have used up a lot of energy just in the process of staying alive given the frigid weather.
.
Anyhow, I have followed the evening Hoot. Yesterday afternoon I hiked to my suspected nesting location during the day and scanned all the nearby White Pines with my binoculars. Jackpot! I think this is the female Great Horned Owl (she’s bigger than the male) all fluffed up against the cold. In a tree 15 yards away I think I found the proposed nest. GHO’s use nests that other birds created in past years, and sometime add some of their own feathers.
These two photos taken just after sunrise this morning when the temperature was -18F. Thus, have you ever wondered what a Polar Vortex looks like? Frosted Owl. (may need to maximize the photographs to really see the frost on the owl’s head)
And the nest … notice the feathers and sticks. Great Horned Owls use nests built by other birds in prior years. From the Cornell School of Ornithology:
- Nests often consist of sticks and vary widely in size, depending on which species originally built the nest (usually Red-tailed Hawks, other hawk species, crows, ravens, herons, or squirrels). Great Horned Owls may line the nest with shreds of bark, leaves, downy feathers plucked from their own breast, fur or feathers from prey, or trampled pellets. In some areas they add no lining at all. Nests deteriorate over the course of the breeding season, and are seldom reused in later years. (my owls have often gotten two years out of each nest they appropriate)
