Recently I had the privilege to be present when a Northern Saw-whet Owl chick, an owlet, fledged. Like most birds after a first flight, this owlet rested for almost 4 hours while its wing muscles recovered from the effort. I took these photographs during that rest period. I waited over two months to post images as it was important to protect the young owls. The owlets now have long since moved far away from their nest cavity. A huge thanks is owed to a friend who was kind enough to point me towards this nest. I would never have found the cavity on my own.
Hello! My plumage color is unique … nothing like my Mom or Dad.
Sometimes an owlet just needs to sleep!
Did you see that?! This world is amazing.
Now I’m just posing for that “owl guy”, the photographer.
The past three days had quite the run in terms of finding owls … all the more amazing that the weather for the first two days were HORRIBLE (downpours and 40 mph wind gusts). However, these poor owls which normally never hunt much past sunrise for much of the year, must have owlets near by which mean they must hunt no matter the weather. There is zero reason for the the Great Gray Owls to be out hunting till 11:00 am in horrible downpours and winds.
MAKE certain you watch the video of the Great Gray Owl hunting. It was 11:00 am, almost six hours after sunrise which in itself is amazing, and then you add in the HORRIBLE weather … downpours and 40+ mph wind gusts. (video link of Great Gray Owl hunting for email subscribers)
And now here are some photographs of each of the six unique owls … three species.
Great Gray Owl … unique owl #1 (in the rain, but out of the wind)
Great Gray Owl … unique owl #2 (in the downpour and 40 mph wind gusts)
Barred Owl … unique owl #3 (video link for email subscribers)
When is a vole, not a vole (the most common prey for Great Gray Owls), when it is a “mole”! In the second of my two posts (see part 1) about spending a morning last Thursday with the Great Gray Owlet, it had difficulty with the larger mole. While to us humans it may not seem like a mole is much larger than a vole, for the juvenile owl the slightly larger size presented an eating / swallowing problem! I actually hiked out of the forest after this feeding at 9:30 am. My friend stayed later and saw another feeding around high noon. Thus, yes … after a couple days of bad weather Great Gray Owls will hunt well into the daylight when there are hungry young to be feed. As I knew the weather over the two prior nights had made effective hunting almost impossible, this was my reason for searching for the owls on that particular day.
Unfortunately the handoff from Poppa Owl to its owlet took place behind the tree trunk, but at least I had adjusted my aperture to increase the field of view in focus. This was important when Poppa Great Gray Owl landed directly above me in a Black Spruce, but then disappeared behind some other trees. I could hear Poppa hooting but not see him. When junior suddenly turned and started begging, I knew something was about to happen and I pressed the shutter down, and kept it down. Shortly thereafter Poppa Owl photo bombed my picture!
Poppa Great Great Gray Owl about to deliver food … junior looks on.
Great Gray Owlet / Juvenile Eating a Mole
Attempting the BIG Swallow 1 (video link 1 for email subscribers)
Attempting the BIG Swallow 2 (video link 2 for email subscribers)
And some still images of the mole eating process …
Breakfast was now over and junior moved to a different perch, where apparently he sat motionless for over three hours till next meal arrived.
The weather forecast is poor for this afternoon and night but getting better in the early daylight hours tomorrow, which means I will try to find the owl family again shortly after sunrise. It will be lucky to find the owl family, but last week week neither owlet seemed inclined to move very far. However, when you are hiking in bog country it is hard to see much of anything over 20 yards away.
