Tag Archive | blood

Wet and dry owls

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The past few days have been rather different as far as weather is concerned. Wednesday night was extremely rainy, and when I went out to see the Great Horned Owls on Thursday morning, they were sopping wet! There was some excitement, with a raven flying in too close, and requiring a chase-off by both the male and female.

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After the raven was safely away, the male (top) and female (bottom) owl perched together in a tree. I normally never see them together like this during daylight hours.

Here is a video of the two interacting.

 

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On Friday morning, when I got to the nest, I found the male owl with his tail feathers soaked in blood. Whatever he killed the night before must have bled a lot!

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Meanwhile, both the mother and the chick were perched on the very top of the nest stump. You can see how big the chick is already!

 

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I went back later in the afternoon to try to shoot in some better light, but of course the owls were mainly sleeping.

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The male got quite excited upon seeing a Cooper’s Hawk fly by the nest. This time, it didn’t require a chase. I also noted that his blood-soaked tail was now clean. 

 

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I found that shooting in the better afternoon light allowed for crisper rendition of the chick’s plumage, but at the cost of blowing out the sky.

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Crisp rendition or no, this chick spent most of the afternoon snoozing, perhaps dreaming of large rats.