Great Horned Owl

1st WARNING - For a limited time only !

2nd WARNING - You may find the following addictive !!

3rd WARNING - You may find yourself suffering from withdrawal symptoms sooner than you would like !!!

I have to thank (or blame!) my good friend, David Gascoigne, for drawing my attention to a web-cam that has held me spellbound all-week.

There is a web-cam that overlooks a Great Horned Owl nest on Skidaway Island, Georgia, USA. You can find its images here. As I write this, the nest contains two owlets which are being looked after by their mother.

Sunday 15th March, 2015

This was my first day of watching the nest, starting in their afternoon. The chicks are fairly lively, and mum puts in an appearance later. The time shown is local time (to the cam) - 4 hours behind UK time.

Monday 16th March, 2015

One of the owls is doing its wing exercises. 

Tuesday 17th March, 2015

Suddenly I find that there is someone working behind the scenes and the camera has amazing zoom capabilities! Until this point in time, all the footage I'd seen had been at the same focal length.

Wednesday 18th March, 2015

I managed to tear myself away from the nest-cam for most of the day. The owlets seemed to be doing just fine. However, by the end of the day, the wind was getting up, and all was looking a little frightening.

Thursday 19th March, 2015

A rather frightening start to the day, with a high wind blowing the tree, and the owlets staying hunkered down or sheltering behind thicker branches. At one point, mum seemed to be mantling one to warm it up. Fortunately the wind died down during the day and the owlets seemed to emerge from the experience with added confidence and a sense of adventure. It was apparent that one would be off the nest platform at any time

Friday 20th May, 2015

When I first looked at the web-cam only one owlet was visible, and that was at the very edge of the nest platform, looking up along a branch. I didn't do any screen grabs of this episode as they took place during the hours of darkness and not much was visible. It seems that one of the owlets was 'branching' - something that they do at about six weeks old. A period of around a week, during which they explore the branches around the nest platform (sometimes ending up on the ground), is (with luck) followed by fledging. It seems, therefore, that these owlets will soon be fledged.

Next time I looked, both owlets were back on the nest. The backroom boys were putting the camera through its paces again.

From my observations of the web-cam, the mother owl appears to be away from the nest for most of the time during the week, but it seems she is not far away as you can see here in this view from the ground.

Remember, this could all end at any time! I suggest you get watching the nest-cam as soon as possible!

Eurasian Eagle Owl - by Noushka

Noushka has been out with the owls again - and this time she's been photographing a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Her efforts have produced absolutely stunning results, as you will find here.

Here's a taster of what is in store for you!

Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo) - by Noushka

Congratulations, Noushka, on some of the most inspiring owl images that it's been my pleasure and privilege to enjoy!

More From Noushka

Noushka has been out with the owls again, and she's come up with more splendid Short-eared Owl images. you can find them here. Here's a taster.

OBN Welcomes New Member, Andrew Duncalf

Andrew Duncalf recently introduced himself to me. He is fairly dedicated to owls (to put it mildly), and has an extremely interesting blog entitled Mid Cheshire Barn Owls. Please take a look by clicking on the link - I'm sure you will return after you do! In the meantime, here is one of Andrew's images to be going on with.

 

More From Noushka

Noushka has recently returned from Spain, and has put a post on her blog with some superb images from a Little Owl encounter. Please take a look via this link. Here is a taster!

Photographer and Artist of Note - Noushka

For some time now I've been admiring the photography and artistic skills of Noushka (at Noushka's request, I have removed her surname), currently living in south-west France.  Noushka's wildlife photography (mainly of birds) is stunning. It has an illustrative quality about it, showing an amazing level of detail - just look and you'll understand what I mean!

It seemed, therefore, appropriate to use a recent post of hers, the subject of which was Long-eared Owls, as the basis of a recent decision to try and revitalise the Owler's Blog Network (which I've totally neglected for many months!).

A sample of Noushka's work is given below, but you can find the full post on her blog at http://1000-pattes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/le-hibou-moyen-duc-asio-otus.html.

copy permitted

Please do take time to look at Noushka's other posts, even if they are not about owls!!

OBN Welcomes Scott Weston

Until today, the OBN only had five members with all but one from UK (England, even!). So you might think that when I said we had a second request for membership from Essex, it was from the English county of Essex - but no, this was a second member from Essex, Massachusetts, USA.

I am delighted to welcome latest OBN member Scott Western. Scott's blog is a little different to those of other OBN members, being primarily a documentation of the owl sites that he monitors, and with the illustrations almost being secondary to that documentation. It is, nevertheless, an interesting read!

Scott's blog is not on the 'Blogger' system, but on 'Wordpress'. The link to his blog in the right hand column of this blog still works just fine, even if it doesn't show the thumbnail image of his latest post.

So now the OBN has six members - four from old England and two from New England!!

Welcome aboard Scott!