I had the most magical evening on my way home through the park. It was just coming dusk and I saw people gathered in a group, as I’ve seen several times before that time of day, looking at a tree. Curious, I parked and walked over to ask what they saw- A pair of mated great horned owls raising two young in the hollow of a cottonwood tree! The man was there who has been following this pair since 2005, Charles and Sarah he calls them. He loaned me his field glasses (I must take mine with me tomorrow!) so I could watch Sarah feeding the two furry young ones, not so little really, I saw one trying to flap his wings. And after most everyone else had left but me and Mark the naturalist and one other fellow who’d joined us we saw Charles fly through the woods and light in another hollow in another tree. He began “whoo, whoo, whoo-‘, that low solemn sound they make. Sarah was still with the young. Mark said you have to watch them close to see them fly because they make no sound- indeed they don’t. As we stood there Charles lit out of the tree and flew just above the ground a dozen feet from us, absolutely no sound did he make. He was after a squirrel. I will stop again tomorrow. What a wonderful thing to see. Here is the blog site where Mark documents their lives:
Pinguid 