Tag: baby great horned owls

Tiny baby owl and sunset

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

It was the middle of January and it was blasting windy and cold but I still made it down to Fort Desoto to see the new baby great horned owls. They had nested right on the top of a dead palm tree. This was a late day shoot so you weren’t shooting right into the sun so I was there late in the afternoon. Not long after I arrived Mom was sitting on the nest with feathers sticking to her beak. What was she eating?

The little baby had been hiding under Mom’s wing but it made a brief appearance and Mom gave it a few bites. I hated that big branch that was in Mom’s face but if I moved over to the right then the baby was hidden by Mom’s wing. There was another baby hiding under the back of Mom but since it was so cold and windy it stayed there.

Mom continued to eat and we realized it was a laughing gull. Some photographers that had been there earlier said Dad flew in with a laughing gull and left it.

What a look!

There’s an osprey nest right by the owl’s nest. Dad flew right over my head with a fish and landed on the nest platform. He dropped the fish and took off. Mom must be sitting on eggs. There are currently 34 osprey nests in the park so it’s going to be a busy baby osprey season.

The nest was near the boat ramp parking lot so I walked over to the water. There wasn’t a single boat out this late afternoon. This is what I love about the cold weather here, the quiet stillness at the parks.

After the Mom owl finished eating I headed over for a quick walk on the north beach. The tide was super low and the sand went on for miles. I didn’t stay long since it was hard standing up straight in the wind.

an image of a red sports car with a lady caricature going at Vroom Vroom high speed, Senior Salon Pit Stop Vroom Vroom Linkup

Triplets for the Class of 2022.

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography5 Comments

I was keeping an eye on the nearby local owl’s nest in mid-January. I’d stop by when I was out running errands.  It was usually easy to spot one of the parents high up in the tree. Mom was always on the nest.

Near the end of January I could see a fuzzy white head on the nest. This was the youngest of three, still looking like an ugly duckling.

One of the other siblings were sitting up and looked much bigger. At this point we thought there might only be 2 babies.

A week later it was confirmed there were 3 babies. All of the babies were still sitting right in the nest so it was hard to see them clearly through all of the moss. More to come on these cuties growing up.

Baby great horned owls!

On By dinajohnstonIn bird photography2 Comments

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Sitting high up in the tree, the older sibling looked bored.

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In the next tree over, the younger owl showed us what he thought of us. Even though I got a picture of the actual poop, it was just too gross to post.

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Across the park, another baby sits alone. I’m not sure if he had an older sibling that had already left the nest. I couldn’t find any parents close by.