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Where to begin . . . probably best to begin on that Thanksgiving Weekend Night in 1990 when I was startled awake by the very loud "HOO-HOO" sound coming from, I thought, my headboard!
I got out of bed, put on bathrobe and slippers, quietly opened the front door, and walked down the driveway, while imitating the sound I had heard. THERE! On the tv antenna across the street! Unbelieving, I watched him/her sitting motionless, watching me. I HOO-HOOed some more; s/he responded in kind. I thought I was dreaming, but the cold of the night told me otherwise. The owl and I continued our dialogue for some time, before s/he swooped over my head and flew away. The sound of its silent flight right above my head is something I will always remember; a faint "whoosh" of air through its wingfeathers.
The owl returned every night, and every night I walked the neighborhood (in robe and slippers . . . probably not a good idea, but I was too enthralled to think about my safety . . . or what any neighbors who might look outside at 2:00 a.m. and see and hear me might think). We continued our dialogue, and s/he swooped over my head several times. (I read later that Great Horned Owls are known as "Flying Tigers" because they have been known to swoop and grab a person's hair and scalp with their talons. Oh well - I guess that is just a risk birders take.)
One night, when the moon was quite bright, I watched from my patio as the two owls mated on the tv antenna of the house behind ours. Whoever was watching television must have thought there was interference, or bad reception; it was a rotor antenna and in the middle of the mating act, the antenna started rotating. The owls flew off.
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The first photograph taken of one of the Great Horned Owls
December 1990 |
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By January, many in the neighborhood were aware that we had a pair of Great Horned Owls in residence. During the previous summer, a wooded area behind the houses across the street from mine had been torn down to become a housing development, so we were sure the pair had moved from that area into ours.
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Great Horned Owl at dusk
January 1991 |
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We soon tracked down their nest - it was in a large pine tree next to our neighbor's house! This meant that we had a front-row seat from our bedroom window for watching the owls' activities. (We also had to assure our neighbors that we were NOT watching THEM, in case they were to look over and see us poised with our binoculars, staring at their house.)
Great Horned Owl sitting next to its nest.
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Continue with the
GREAT HORNED HOWLS HERE