Tag Archives: MN North: Amity

A Bad Day for Owlets!

Year 8

Last night the rain fell in torrents; lightning flashed, thunder roared … and it even hailed. Then at sunrise the crows attacked. In short it has been a “Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. (and night)”. My apologies to the author, Judith Viorst, for this edit of her classic children’s book cover. I read the book to my own children many, many years ago.

A Photograph taken at sunrise this morning … drenched owlets.

Crow Attack … the Movie … also at sunrise (video link for email subscribers)

Great Horned Owlets growing Fast

Year 8

These two images were taken four days apart. Here is the image from four days ago. I believe there are actually two owlets in the image. (if you maximize this image and zoom in, I believe there is a second owlet’s beak behind the first’s beak)

And today. The chicks are very different in size at this stage as they are born quite a few days apart (the eggs are laid quite a few days apart)

Owlets!

Year 8
I’m a God Poppa to my owls again!!!
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For the third year in a row I have found the Lester / Amity Great Horned Owl nest, and yesterday evening I was convinced I saw downy tail feathers. With today’s warmer weather I did a return hike and jackpot … one of the owlets was out enjoying what all Duluthians are enjoying … warmth and sun.
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I don’t normally “mark up” photographs, but the owlet is pretty easy to miss otherwise. I suspect the first owlet may have been born on my birthday last week. The youngsters spend about 7 days under the mom before venturing outside.
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The female has been on the nest non-stop since February 15th. She does all the incubating and fledging. The male does all the hunting at this point. The Mom still has about a 2-3 weeks to go before she will leave the nest for the first time … when both parents will need to hunt in order to feed the hungry family. to hunt to feed a hungry family.
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This year’s nest is so very hard to see, but once the owlets start walking on the branches, I should get some decent views.

Yesterday evening … tail feathers that look “downy”

Return visit this morning!