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March 27, 2010

Great-horned Owlet - Day 9

I went down yesterday to try to get some photos of the owlet. Mostly, they were sort of "UFO-Bigfoot quality photos", unfortunately. What I see is an owlet, that appears to be fairly mobile, living mainly beneath the mother's wing, but coming out to feed occasionally. I suspect that the father hunts at night for prey, brings it by and drops it off. Probably he does this all night. Then, around dawn, he flies off somewhere to perch and sleep through the day.

From the food the male brings, the mom eats some, but keeps a portion in the nest for the baby to munch on during the day. So, I think this is what I'm seeing...the baby coming out, getting a bit to eat from last night's kill, and then retreating to the warmth of the mother's wing. And it must be warm. Let there be no doubt about that. It's snowing outside, and somehow she keeps that baby warm as toast. I'm sure he's happy with the arrangement, so far as he understands it, anyway.

My best estimate as to when the owlet was born is March 14-17, meaning that in this photo taken March 26th, the owlet would be approximately 9-12 days old.

Categories: Photos, Birds, Owls

Posted by Rob Kiser on March 27, 2010 at 11:12 AM

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