MN North: Amity | 365 Days of Birds

I went hiking and looking for the Great Horned Owlets at 6:45 am this morning. I guessed that after all the rain locally, including last night, the owls would be somewhat out in the open trying to dry off. I was not disappointed, and found all three young owls and their Mom. My estimate is the owlets are about two months and ten days old. Notice in today’s photograph how almost all the down in gone, and the young birds are beginning to look very grown up. Although the parent owls will continue to help feed the owlets through early fall, very shortly the youngsters will have to start also hunting on their own. Normally, it becomes easier to find the owlets once they are hunting because they spend much more time down lower to the ground, rather than high up in the canopy of leaves.

Great Horned Owlets (pics taken this morning)

Strange title, eh?! (I live near the Canadian border and am allowed to talk in this manner) However, as strange as the blog post title may seem, it is perfectly correct. I don’t write many posts about my health, but folks keep asking …

For those who don’t know, last October I collapsed while trail running and almost died. My Garmin data showed I was motionless on the ground for 30 minutes. Thankfully, with help I eventually hiked to the trailhead. Thus started my “Cardiac Owl Rehab” program. It seems I had a genetically misshapen heart valve which needed replacement. Now seven months later after three heart surgeries (including open heart to replace my valve), and an additional three heart procedures, my strength seems to be returning.

Enter my owls and their personal specialized rehab program just for me. The past two years the owls nested a 2/3 mile hike away from my house. This winter, such a hike would have been difficult for me. The Amity Great Horned Owl family knew they had to get me up and walking, and decided to nest 30 yards from the end of my driveway. The net effect is I would visit their nest many times per day starting mid February. This got me out of the house and insured I climbed the hill up to our house quite often daily.

Now that my health is returning, the owls have continued their special rehab program. When the owls fledged this year, they flew to a new pine grove and hung out there for many weeks. This location required a 2/3 mile hike for me to reach their new home. This past Sunday now that I was handling the longer hike, they decided it was time to “up my game significantly” and they moved again. The owl family now requires me now to hike one mile uphill to reach their new location. However, the owls wanted even more out of me. This third location is off trail and requires significant bushwhacking off trail by me including “high stepping” over lots of deadfall. In addition I am taking a 12.5 mile bike ride up the shore of Lake Superior 4-5 times per week.

Yes, I have been on an active cardiac owl therapy program. The staff at my local hospital who I see often even know me as “the owl guy”. I accept the title with pride (download and read a free copy of Do You Hoot?). There is one strange item I now wear to my owl therapy sessions … cross-country skiing knee socks. I love wearing shorts, but all the bushwhacking was resulting in torn and cut up shins. Given my blood thinner medication my legs were cut daily with lots of blood (long time to clot). My solution has been knee socks. I am definitely not winning any fashion awards while out birding, but “we birders” are supposed to look a bit strange anyhow, eh?!

Here are three photographs I took of the youngest owlet yesterday morning. As a reminder this owlet was born 7 to 9 days after its siblings, and the size difference is still noticeable to me.

Great Horned Owlet directing my “Rehab” yesterday morning